Miss-Delectable
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The Sudbury Star - Ontario, CA
Two of three men charged with causing thousands of dollars in damage to the apartment of a deaf person on Beech Street last month have pleaded guilty in Sudbury court.
The damage included carving the word "deaf" in the apartment door.
"This was initially described as a hate-motivated crime," prosecutor Guy Roy told Ontario Court Justice Yvon Renaud, on Friday.
However, neither Christopher Marcotte, 22, who pleaded guilty in a court hearing Thursday, nor Darren Brown, 18, who was in court Friday, would admit to making the mark.
Both Marcotte and Brown have been in jail since the incident at 98 Beech St., on Feb. 6. The third person charged has yet to come to trial.
Court was told close to $3,000 damage was done to the apartment and its contents.
Two television sets were smashed, a bed was flipped over, the refrigerator was left laying face down, a microwave was thrown from its stand, lamps were thrown about, a dresser was flipped over and paint was sprayed over a large part of the apartment.
A fire extinguisher was sprayed about the room and when it was empty, it was thrown through a closed window. There were empty beer bottles thrown about the apartment and blood on the walls.
"It was quite a mess," said Renaud of the havoc. There was "extreme damage" caused to the apartment, he added.
Because the occupant of the apartment was deaf, he had a special device installed by the Canadian Hearing Society on his apartment door to alert him when someone was there. The device, worth $600, was destroyed.
Initially Marcotte and Brown told police they were upset at the occupant of the apartment because he had failed to pay $60 he owed them.
A padlocked door was smashed to get into the apartment.
"It was a hair-brained, drunken rampage," said lawyer Louis Sola who represented Marcotte.
"It was an act of drunken stupidity. He (Marcotte) participated because his friend was angry" at the apartment's occupant, said Sola.
The victim has been on public assistance for some time and has no money to replace his damaged possessions, said assistant Crown attorney Laura Laporte. "He lost everything."
Both Marcotte and Brown are also on public assistance, said their lawyers. Despite that, judges in both cases imposed standalone restitution orders, which remain in place for life or until the debt is paid.
"What I did was wrong," Marcotte told Judge Malcolm McLeod. "I got drunk and I blacked out. He asked that he be allowed out on probation, saying his girlfriend is to give birth to his baby in May and his mother is in hospital dying of cancer.
"You trashed this guy's place, and I should just let you walk?" McLeod asked Marcotte. It was "wanton destruction of personal property," he said.
In the end, McLeod said he was taking into account the 51 days Marcotte had spent in jail awaiting the hearing, and his representations that he was ready to take treatment for his addictions and granted him a sentence of one day, time served. In addition, the judge placed Marcotte on probation for 12 months and ordered him to perform 100 hours of community service work.
Brown received a sentence of 30 days in addition to the time he had already spent in jail. However, he also pleaded guilty to two counts of defrauding the Bank of Montreal and breach of probation in connection with offences committed in January.
Court was told Brown was with two others consuming drugs when they ran out of money. They took a friend's bank card and tried to get $1,400 from an automatic teller machine by depositing two empty deposit envelopes as if they contained cheques.
They didn't get the money.
Brown asked Renaud to grant him his freedom saying his father has palsy and his mother has breast cancer and he needed to get to his Newmarket home to look after them.
He was sent back to jail for another 30 days. When he is released he will be on probation for 18 months.
Two of three men charged with causing thousands of dollars in damage to the apartment of a deaf person on Beech Street last month have pleaded guilty in Sudbury court.
The damage included carving the word "deaf" in the apartment door.
"This was initially described as a hate-motivated crime," prosecutor Guy Roy told Ontario Court Justice Yvon Renaud, on Friday.
However, neither Christopher Marcotte, 22, who pleaded guilty in a court hearing Thursday, nor Darren Brown, 18, who was in court Friday, would admit to making the mark.
Both Marcotte and Brown have been in jail since the incident at 98 Beech St., on Feb. 6. The third person charged has yet to come to trial.
Court was told close to $3,000 damage was done to the apartment and its contents.
Two television sets were smashed, a bed was flipped over, the refrigerator was left laying face down, a microwave was thrown from its stand, lamps were thrown about, a dresser was flipped over and paint was sprayed over a large part of the apartment.
A fire extinguisher was sprayed about the room and when it was empty, it was thrown through a closed window. There were empty beer bottles thrown about the apartment and blood on the walls.
"It was quite a mess," said Renaud of the havoc. There was "extreme damage" caused to the apartment, he added.
Because the occupant of the apartment was deaf, he had a special device installed by the Canadian Hearing Society on his apartment door to alert him when someone was there. The device, worth $600, was destroyed.
Initially Marcotte and Brown told police they were upset at the occupant of the apartment because he had failed to pay $60 he owed them.
A padlocked door was smashed to get into the apartment.
"It was a hair-brained, drunken rampage," said lawyer Louis Sola who represented Marcotte.
"It was an act of drunken stupidity. He (Marcotte) participated because his friend was angry" at the apartment's occupant, said Sola.
The victim has been on public assistance for some time and has no money to replace his damaged possessions, said assistant Crown attorney Laura Laporte. "He lost everything."
Both Marcotte and Brown are also on public assistance, said their lawyers. Despite that, judges in both cases imposed standalone restitution orders, which remain in place for life or until the debt is paid.
"What I did was wrong," Marcotte told Judge Malcolm McLeod. "I got drunk and I blacked out. He asked that he be allowed out on probation, saying his girlfriend is to give birth to his baby in May and his mother is in hospital dying of cancer.
"You trashed this guy's place, and I should just let you walk?" McLeod asked Marcotte. It was "wanton destruction of personal property," he said.
In the end, McLeod said he was taking into account the 51 days Marcotte had spent in jail awaiting the hearing, and his representations that he was ready to take treatment for his addictions and granted him a sentence of one day, time served. In addition, the judge placed Marcotte on probation for 12 months and ordered him to perform 100 hours of community service work.
Brown received a sentence of 30 days in addition to the time he had already spent in jail. However, he also pleaded guilty to two counts of defrauding the Bank of Montreal and breach of probation in connection with offences committed in January.
Court was told Brown was with two others consuming drugs when they ran out of money. They took a friend's bank card and tried to get $1,400 from an automatic teller machine by depositing two empty deposit envelopes as if they contained cheques.
They didn't get the money.
Brown asked Renaud to grant him his freedom saying his father has palsy and his mother has breast cancer and he needed to get to his Newmarket home to look after them.
He was sent back to jail for another 30 days. When he is released he will be on probation for 18 months.