Yellowknife (Feb 18/05) - A not-so-sure-footed criminal who tumbled off a rooftop and knocked himself unconscious was sentenced to four months in jail for prowling, Wednesday.

A renter living above a downtown hair salon spotted Mark Poodlat, 21, lying "spread-eagle" over her second floor skylight one night last August.

When police arrived, they ordered Poodlat to come down from the rooftop. He tried to escape by climbing over the roof and onto a propane tank near the back of the building.

RCMP Cpl. Jeffrey Burkell watched Poodlat fall.

"I saw him spin in the air and land basically head first," he said.

When Burkell got to Poodlat the clumsy criminal was unconscious and wedged between the propane tank and a fence.

Poodlat was transferred to Stanton Territorial Hospital, but did not suffer any lasting injuries from the fall, said his lawyer Graham Watt.

Watt argued Poodlat was highly-intoxicated after sharing four bottles of vodka and several marijuana cigarettes with four friends.

"It was more like a drunken trespass," Watt said.

Poodlat testified that he blacked out several blocks away from the hair salon and did not recall climbing onto the building.

It was a defence Chief Judge Brian Bruser described as "weak." Bruser said Poodlat had the wherewithal to negotiate the sloped roof and try to escape from police.

"That is prowling," Bruser said.

Bruser said Poodlat, who had a long criminal record that includes several entries for break and enter, was clearly casing the apartment.

"You weren't peeking through the window at flowers," Bruser said.