Court briefs
Six years' prison for selling drugs to cops
49-year-old pleads guilty to six charges, including possession of fentanyl for trafficking purposes
John McFadden
Northern News Services
Friday, February 17, 2017
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A drug dealer who sold fentanyl pills to an undercover RCMP officer as the dangerous drug was just getting established in the Yellowknife drug trade has been sentenced to six years in prison.
Dayl Hein, 49, pleaded guilty to six charges in total, including possession of fentanyl for the purpose of trafficking. He was sentenced by Judge Louise Charbonneau in NWT Supreme Court on Tuesday.
Court head Hein sold three fentanyl pills to the undercover officer on Aug. 11, 2014 for $280 and five more the next day for $450. Charbonneau acknowledged the dangers of the opioid drug were not widely known in Yellowknife or even across Canada at the time.
"It was not a drug that the public knew about but more and more we hear about the deaths and overdoes it causes," said Charbonneau.
"Those who sell it are only interested in making a profit. They are taking a real risk of killing people just to make money. We would be delusional to think that what has happened elsewhere with this drug would not happen here."
In sentencing Hein, Charbonneau said fentanyl is 50 to 100 times stronger than morphine and courts are now treating it the same way they would heroin. Hein also admitted to selling cocaine and the painkiller oxycodone to an undercover officer in 2014.
While he was out on bail, Hein was charged with trafficking cocaine again in 2016. He also pleaded guilty to that offence.
Defence lawyer Dane Bullerwall told the court that Hein, who has a lengthy criminal record, has also admitted to addiction issues.
Hein, who was already in custody earlier this week, wore a plaid dress shirt and khakis during the hearing. He was allowed to leave the prisoner's box to sit alongside his lawyer. He addressed the court before being sentenced.
"I'd like to apologize. I really need help," he said.
Taking into account his pre-sentence time in jail, Hein was actually serve another four years and 11 months in custody.
Charbonneau said she would strongly recommend Hein be allowed to serve his sentence in the NWT.
B.C. man gets four years for drug trafficking
A B.C. man was sentenced to four years in prison Tuesday after pleading guilty to possession of cocaine and marijuana for the purpose of trafficking.
Steven Marc Ormrod, 33, was arrested on Oct. 2, 2013 after RCMP raided a home in Kam Lake, finding more 344 grams of cocaine, 652 grams of marijuana, $10,000 in cash, and nearly $2,000 in diamonds, as well as 14 firearms.
Court heard Ormrod initially fled the home when police arrived to execute a search warrant but he was later found hiding in an abandoned vehicle on the property. Property and firearms charges were eventually dropped but many if not all the 118 items seized at the home during the raid have been forfeited to the Crown.
Taking into account the amount of time Ormrod has served awaiting the sentencing hearing, NWT Supreme Court Judge Louise Charbonneau sentenced him to a further 26 months in jail.
Alleged gang members on trial
A trial began Monday in NWT Supreme Court for two men RCMP allege are connected to the criminal '856' gang based out of the Lower Mainland of B.C.
Michael Robert Hopkins, 29, of Langley, B.C. and Christopher Mathers, 32, of London, Ont., were arrested on Dec. 6, 2013 following RCMP drug raids around Yellowknife.
The raids netted more than $32,000 in cash, 226 grams of marijuana, 85 grams of crack-cocaine, weapons, electronics, drug paraphernalia and an RCMP-issued jacket and bullet-proof vest.
Eight other people were arrested in the same raids.
The two men, who have both pleaded not guilty and have separate Yellowknife-based lawyers, are on trial together in front of NWT Supreme Court Judge Andrew Mahar.
On the trial's opening day Monday, court heard about a pre-dawn raid at Mathers' Fort Gary Apartments unit on Gitzel Street.
RCMP Const. Andrew Moore testified he led seven other officers from the Mounties' Emergency Response Team (ERT) in executing the search warrant. He said they used a battering ram to enter the apartment when no one answered their knock on the door.
Moore said he then deployed a distraction device in the apartment, commonly referred to as a flash bang or a flash grenade. The device is used because is emits a loud bang and a bright light. He said he then saw Mathers with both hands poking out of a bedroom door and telling officers he had a dog in his room.
Moore said Mathers was subsequently taken into custody while he tried to prevent the pitbull-type dog from jumping out the window.
The trial is expected to wrap up next week.
