Loaded handgun in vehicle nets three and a half years

A provincial judge sentenced a man to three and a half years in prison after police found a loaded handgun and psychedelics in his vehicle.

“This was very serious, and it could have been so much worse. You could have ended up dead. You could have ended up killing someone else,” Judge Shauna Hewitt-Michta told 22-year-old Wakinya White on Friday during his sentencing hearing in Brandon provincial court.

White previously pleaded guilty to possessing a restricted firearm with accessible ammunition, possessing a firearm without a licence, occupying a motor vehicle with a firearm, possessing a firearm with a defaced serial number, carrying a concealed weapon and carelessly carrying a firearm.

The Crown recommended a sentence of four years, while defence argued for two.

During a traffic stop on Aug. 24, 2025, police noticed an open can of alcohol in the vehicle White was driving, prompting a search of the vehicle.

Police seized a .22-calibre revolver with six rounds in the chamber, along with psilocybin and ammunition, court heard. When police searched White, they found more ammunition, a throwing-style knife and a small amount of marijuana.

Court heard the firearm was prohibited and the serial number was defaced.

White has no criminal record, pleaded guilty to the charges early and has Gladue factors, Crown attorney Rich Lonstrup said while listing the mitigating factors.

He said White has been described as having a positive work ethic and has been working in the kitchen while in custody at Brandon Correctional Centre.

White is capable of “making way better decisions than he made in this case,” Lonstrup said.

There were also several aggravating factors, he said, including that “he was in a vehicle, using drugs, had a dangerous firearm and multiple rounds of ammunition.”

Lonstrup said White’s explanation as to how he ended up with weapons was that he was homeless, started using drugs and became paranoid about “foreign invasion,” after paying close attention to the news.

“Paranoid people under the influence of intoxicating drugs … have a diminished grasp of reality and their judgment and their appreciation of consequences of their actions are all compromised,” the Crown said.

While White may not have been a conventional criminal using a firearm for criminal activity, “he is comparably bad and arguably far worse” when considering the circumstances, Lonstrup said.

Defence lawyer Anthony Dawson said it’s “certainly dangerous” to have a loaded firearm with a defaced serial number in a vehicle but said the court needs to look at how the firearm was discovered.

“This is not discovered because there’s any sort of calls that someone’s found someone with a gun — there’s not any sort of disturbance call,” Dawson said. “There was no indication that anyone, let alone Mr. White himself, were … directly using or grabbing on to the gun.”

White was born in Brandon but spent most of his life in the United States, Dawson said, adding that one of the officers found White’s concealed carry permit for the state of South Dakota in the vehicle, showing that he is normally someone who tries to follow the law.

Dawson said his client acknowledged he should have been more careful and reached out for help when he became paranoid.

He described White’s childhood as “tragic” and said his family has a history with residential schools.

During his time in custody, White has completed several programs and workbooks.

White told the court he was homeless and bouncing between jobs, and he turned to drugs to manage the stress.

“I feel as if my drug use explains my actions, but it doesn’t excuse them. I understand what I did. What I did was wrong,” he said.

White said his mindset was “reckless and irresponsible” at the time, and he understood his actions could have possibly put the community in danger.

“I just want to say sorry to the community.”

Hewitt-Michta said White showed good prospects of rehabilitation, and it sounded like he had reflected on his actions.

However, she described the offence as serious and said the sentence imposed needed to reflect that seriousness and send a message of denunciation and deterrence to the community.

White has already served the equivalent of almost 14 months in custody, leaving him with 28 months going forward.

» sanderson@brandonsun.com