Man sentenced for part in musical instrument theft

One of two men who broke into a downtown Brandon warehouse and stole around $4,000 worth of musical instruments was sentenced to just under one year in jail on Thursday.

“You stole those musical instruments that meant something to somebody else — somebody that spent a lot of money paying for and accumulating … Stop and think about that,” Judge Shauna Hewitt-Michta said in Brandon provincial court.

Gabriel Ibarra, 37, pleaded guilty to breaking and entering, resisting a peace officer, failing to attend court and two counts of failing to comply with a probation order.

Crown attorney Rich Lonstrup read the details behind the charges.

On July 12, a man reported that two men broke into his business on 10th Street. Police reviewed surveillance footage, which showed two men enter the building at around 10 a.m. and leave with several musical instruments.

Police identified the two men from previous interactions, one of them being Ibarra.

“The total amount — that’s between the two men — stolen was approximately $4,000,” Lonstrup said.

Ibarra was already in custody for a different charge at the time. Officers re-arrested him for breaking and entering. He was ultimately released but taken back into custody days later for not reporting to probation. He has remained in custody since.

Prior to the break-in, on Feb. 14, security at The Town Centre mall received a report that a man was in the parking lot looking into the windows of vehicles.

Security asked him to leave, and because Ibarra allegedly wanted to leave through a different exit than security was directing him, it resulted in a “scuffle,” Lonstrup said.

Security called the police.

“When police came, he continued to struggle. Police had to take extensive measures to secure him and get him to co-operate in the circumstances, and he simply was not doing that,” he said.

Officers arrested Ibarra and took him into custody. He was later released.

On Feb. 20, Ibarra was on a probation order not to be within 200 metres of Prairie Mountain Health, which Lonstrup said essentially encompassed the entirety of The Town Centre site.

Police received a report from security of a man who was “acting erratically” and taking off his clothes.

Officers found Ibarra in the food court, where he was arrested for breaching a condition of his probation order.

He was later released and failed to come to court on April 14.

Lonstrup said Ibarra had a “terrible record” of property offences and asked the court to impose a sentence of eight months. He said he would have asked for longer if Ibarra hadn’t been resolving all of his charges.

He asked for a sentence of 60 days for breaching his probation by being within 200 metres of PMH and 30 days for resisting a peace officer, along with a fine for failing to attend court and a fine or concurrent time for failing to report to probation.

Additionally, he asked that the sentence be followed by two years of supervised probation.

“I understand that he suffers from homelessness, transiency, addictions and a host of other issues. The Crown has tried to balance that in terms of assessing moral culpability.”

Defence lawyer Jonathan Richert mostly agreed with the Crown’s recommendations.

He said his client had a “very difficult” childhood and grew up in foster homes, where he experienced abuse at times.

A previous mental health worker of Ibarra’s told Richert that Ibarra experienced a drug-induced psychosis episode and “effectively has never been the same since,” he said.

Richert described the break and enter as a “crime of opportunity.”

While Ibarra claimed that the door was already partially open and he didn’t force it open, Richert said the court didn’t have to accept this statement and that he still shouldn’t have gone in.

He told the court that his client sold the instruments in the community for a rough total of $100.

“These are not sophisticated crimes,” Richert said. “I think he just saw a way to make a quick few bucks … A senseless crime in every sense of the word.”

As for the breach of probation for being within 200 metres of PMH, Richert asked for a sentence of 30 days instead of the Crown’s request for 60 days.

He also asked that Ibarra not be subject to a further period of supervised probation, as it’s something he has struggled with.

When given a chance to speak, Ibarra apologized.

“I was under a state of distress, and I was off my medication,” he said. “I suffer with problems that other people aren’t used to, so that’s my excuse, and I’m sorry.”

Hewitt-Michta said she understood that life may be harder for him than it is for most people, but “it’s no excuse.”

She went along with the Crown’s recommended sentence, apart from their request for supervised probation. She said he has shown he is no longer a candidate and imposed two years of unsupervised probation instead.

» sanderson@brandonsun.com