Woman fined $2K for role in crime spree

A woman involved in a months-long crime spree was spared jail time and instead sentenced to pay $2,000 after the defence described how she “completely turned her life around.”

Jenna Mallette pleaded guilty to the charges of theft under $5,000, theft over $5,000 and fraudulent use of a credit card on Monday in a Brandon provincial courtroom.

Crown attorney Rich Lonstrup said the offending spanned from around the fall to the spring of 2023. He said police received various complaints of stolen items, but the items weren’t recovered until that October, when a woman noticed her stolen vehicle was in a “rural area outside of Brandon.”

“(Police) attended … and what they found was all the detritus, or stolen items, linking to a series of thefts, including those that are before the court today,” Lonstrup said.

“We don’t know who took what,” he said. “What we know is that Miss Mallette, throughout this bad time in her life, was affiliated with two very negative individuals … and there was indicia implicating all three to this material.”

He said video surveillance was recovered, and the Crown agreed to take pleas to what was most incriminating for Mallette, which was possession of property obtained by crime under $5,000, indicating that she had some knowledge or control over the stolen items, and a stolen Mitsubishi Outlander.

Lonstrup said the stolen vehicle belonged to a woman who was caring for her mother in the hospital’s intensive care unit at the time and “practically living out of her vehicle.”

As a result of the vehicle being stolen, Lonstrup said the woman lost several personal belongings, including her son’s birth certificate, passports, her mother’s purse and a mobility scooter.

“That said, she was probably the most affected.”

Mallette’s handprint was found inside the driver’s-side window of the vehicle, Lonstrup said.

Video surveillance also showed Mallette, slightly disguised and wearing a wig, operating one of the stolen vehicles involved in the case at a Husky location in Brandon.

“(She) incurred, at least that day, a total of $4,000 in expenses,” he said. “The common pattern now is when someone acquires a stolen car, they get a bunch of gift cards and make it all untraceable.”

Lonstrup said usually this type of offending, which he said victimized numerous people, would warrant time in custody, but there were a few reasons why he said custody wasn’t necessary.

He said she had already been sentenced for offences that took place within the same time frame in June 2024 for a series of property and fraud offences and received a conditional sentence — house arrest — on top of the more than 90 days she spent in custody.

He said the defence also noted some possible triable issues, and if Mallette did take the matter to trial, it would be weeks long.

“The most determinative thing for the Crown here in not asking for jail is … this accused stands apart from the vast majority in having made some pretty breathtaking rehabilitative efforts. She is night and day from when she was first here,” Lonstrup said.

The lawyers jointly recommended that Mallette be sentenced to pay a $2,000 fine followed by two years of supervised probation.

Defence lawyer Jennifer Janssens said Mallette should be given a “great deal of credit” for her guilty pleas given exigencies in the Crown’s case and the time and resources it would take to try the charges.

She said Mallette has made “exceptional steps in her recovery.”

“I can’t emphasize enough the extent to which Miss Mallette has completely turned her life around,” Janssens said.

She said shortly after her offending, Mallette and her partner entered the Behavioural Health Foundation and completed more than 16 months of treatment.

“She really addressed the underlying issues that caused her addiction, and now she’s been able to achieve long-term recovery based on her efforts,” Janssens said.

Mallette now works as an intake counsellor, where she can pass on what she learned through her own recovery to others, she said.

“I’m very hopeful for her future in terms of what she can give back to the community and to others because of her recovery journey.”

When given a chance to speak, Mallette said this period of offending was the worst time in her life.

“The only thing I can take from it is to help other people with what I have been through, and I’m going to continue to do that the best I can,” she said.

Judge Patrick Sullivan said the nature of Mallette’s offending was aggravating, but agreed that the sentence was appropriate due to her “exceptional circumstances.”

“Our community is safer when the underlying issue that is fuelling offending is addressed,” he said. “So, in this case, when the addiction piece is managed and addressed, 16 months at the Behavioural Health Foundation is a way better outcome for all involved than a further period of custody.”

sanderson@brandonsun.com