Boissevain cocaine dealer receives prison time

A man was sentenced to just under two and a half years in Brandon’s Court of King’s Bench on Friday after police found cocaine and drug paraphernalia in his Boissevain apartment in 2023.

Jesse Chambers, 29, pleaded guilty to possessing cocaine for the purpose of trafficking and resisting arrest.

The Crown asked the court to impose a sentence of two and a half years, while defence argued for a slightly shorter sentence of two years and one month. Both lawyers agreed that a concurrent sentence of 45 days for resisting arrest would be appropriate.

Crown attorney Serena Ehrmantraut detailed the facts behind the guilty pleas.

On July 7, 2023, RCMP went to Chambers’ apartment in Boissevain to execute a drug-related search warrant.

When police saw Chambers leave his residence and get into his vehicle, they tried to arrest him. Chambers got out of the vehicle and ran away while police told him he was under arrest, the Crown said.

Police eventually apprehended Chambers and told him they had a search warrant for his apartment.

Because Chambers was “severely out of breath” from running, officers called emergency medical services as a precaution. Chambers admitted to smoking crack cocaine earlier in the day, court heard.

While executing the search warrant, police found a closet safe with a marijuana container inside that contained cocaine, Ehrmantraut said. They also found a “large amount” of cash, three digital scales and some dime baggies.

Chambers gave a statement to police and said he lived alone but declined to comment on the money police found.

“He indicated his first instinct was to run when he saw the police, and he admitted to being a crack cocaine drug user, smoking a gram to a couple grams per day,” the Crown said.

In total, police seized just over an ounce of cocaine, the digital scales, drug trafficking paraphernalia, some prescription pills, score sheets and $7,620 in cash.

“There were 60 different pills. They had been tested and were confirmed to be acetaminophen and oxycodone,” Ehrmantraut said, adding that the cocaine was also tested and confirmed to be cocaine.

Police seized Chambers’ cellphone, which had multiple photos of bricks of cocaine and stacks of money, along with photos of score sheets with names and dollar amounts.

“From the Crown’s perspective this … is categorized within that street-level range,” Ehrmantraut said. “I would submit that it’s at the higher end of street level.”

Despite pleading guilty late in the proceedings, Ehrmantraut said his pleas are a mitigating factor. She also pointed out that Chambers does “struggle with significant drug addiction issues,” which affect his moral culpability.

She said the fact that this is not his first drug trafficking-related conviction is an aggravating factor.

He has previously been convicted of possession of cannabis for the purpose of trafficking and possessing methamphetamine for the purpose of trafficking.

“We now have these new offences before the court, where we turn to cocaine, and it clearly seems to have been quite successful in his endeavours, given the fact that he had over $7,000 worth of cash on him and some photos on his phone that seemed to depict that he was quite lucrative and successful,” she said.

Defence lawyer Jonathan Richert said most, if not all, of Chambers’ offences have been committed while he was under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

While in custody, Richert said Chambers has sought out programming, but there isn’t much available at Brandon Correctional Centre.

Richert said his client specifically asked him to suggest a sentence of no less than two years so that he can serve his time at a penitentiary, where there is more programming available.

“He’s struggled with the use of cocaine, crack, meth, some pills and marijuana, probably for about as long as he can remember,” Richert said. “He seems to be committed to maintaining his sobriety.”

Richert said the reason that the matter has been delayed for so long is in part because there was a change in counsel, and Chambers originally wanted to take the matter to trial, as there may have been some “deficiencies in the search warrant” that police obtained.

“Chambers deserves credit for his guilty plea because he determined and gave me the instructions that he didn’t want to bother going through with that,” he said. “He just wanted to take responsibility for what he had done and move forward with his life.”

Justice Elliot Leven said he was prepared to “reduce the sentence slightly” from the Crown’s recommendation and sentenced Chambers to two years and five months, minus the time in custody he had to his credit, which was the equivalent of 36 days.

» sanderson@brandonsun.com