Drug dealer sold to police
Yellowknife man sentenced to 14 months in jail for trafficking cocaine
Evan Kiyoshi French
Northern News Services
Wednesday, April 13, 2016
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A 41-year-old man who sold cocaine to undercover RCMP officers was sentenced to 14 months jail Friday, minus time served.
His seven months of pre-trial custody means Michael Peter Beauchamp has only 90 more days left to serve.
Beauchamp was charged with possessing cocaine and possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking after police raided his home Sept. 1 and seized 3.14 grams of cocaine, drug paraphernalia, four knives, a baton, BB guns and some ammunition.
The raid was executed in conjunction with Project Gloomier - an RCMP anti-drug trafficking operation carried out in 2015.
Beauchamp's troubles began on Aug. 27 after selling a gram of cocaine to an undercover RCMP officer. Later, on Aug. 31, the same undercover officer met Beauchamp at the downtown liquor store and asked for another gram of "soft" - powdered cocaine. Beauchamp charged the officer $100 for 0.8 grams of the substance, claiming his was the "best stuff around."
The weapons seized and much of the paraphernalia seized on Sept. 1 belonged to Beauchamp's roommate, co-accused Michael Lapierre, 38. Lapierre has been charge with trafficking cocaine, possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking and possession of cannabis resin. He is scheduled to next appear in court June 14.
Crown prosecutor Brendan Green told the court that Beauchamp has a criminal record, including weapons charges in 1994 and 2006, and previous drug charges in 1994. He told territorial court judge Garth Malakoe the Crown was seeking 18 months in jail, a DNA sample, and a weapons prohibition.
"It is in the Crown's view that although he is not part of a criminal organization, he's clearly working with those members," said Green, adding the police sting operation revealed that Beauchamp was frequently selling cocaine.
"We're not talking about a one-off situation or a crime of opportunity," he said.
He said while the Crown doesn't believe Beauchamp owns any of the weapons found in the home, the presence of weapons is a serious threat to the community.
"Violence is often associated in trafficking drugs," he said.
Beauchamp told interviewers for a pre-sentencing report prepared before his appearance that he does not see any alternatives to crime.
"It's either trafficking drugs or resorting to his previous lifestyle of armed robbery," said Green.
Defence lawyer Leslie Moore said Beauchamp sells cocaine to fuel his addiction to it.
"He was driven by addiction, he has no profits from the transactions," he said.
Moore said courts make a distinction between traffickers selling drugs for profit, versus traffickers selling to fuel their habits.
He said Beauchamp suffered head injuries in a car
crash in 1996.
"He has self-medicated with hard drugs, he admits to himself," said Moore, while asking the judge to consider a sentence of 12 months.
Moore said since being taken into custody, Beauchamp has begun attending counselling sessions at North Slave Correctional Centre.
Beauchamp, who has a tattoo of a tear under his left eye and another large tattoo visible on his neck, said it's been humiliating to deal with his charges and said he has made "stupid choices."
"Am I going to do better this time? You bet," he said. "It's easy to throw me away but I want people to know I do feel bad."
Malakoe said addiction to cocaine is not an excuse for trafficking and he must send a message to other traffickers in the city when considering a sentence.
"Traffickers are invariably drug users," he said. "Mr. Beauchamp's rehabilitation must take a back seat to denunciation."
The judge sentenced Beauchamp to serve 14 months for the trafficking charge, four months concurrently for the possession charge but credited him with 330 days for time spent in pre-trial custody.
Following his release, Beauchamp will serve 18 months of probation, must submit a DNA sample, and is prohibited from owning or operating firearms or explosives for 10 years. Malakoe ordered him to pay $400 in victim surcharges, and to attend treatment as directed by his probation officer.
