A man, who court officials described as the “least culpable” in a drug-related home invasion in Osoyoos three years ago, has been sentenced to house arrest.
Jeremiah McKenzie of Kelowna pleaded guilty in Penticton provincial court Monday to a charge of break and entering in connection with an incident on the night of May 14, 2006.
Court was told that McKenzie was one of three men who forced their way into a home on 70th Avenue and accosted a man and woman inside while the woman‘s eight-year-old was asleep in a nearby bedroom.
Crown counsel Greg Koturbash said one of the men brandished a sawed off shotgun, while an accomplice appeared to be carrying something under a towel. McKenzie was unarmed.
Koturbash said the incident was related to an argument over a small cocaine deal with an Osoyoos drug dealer who was not present at the time. After the shotgun-toting suspect ordered the man and woman to the floor and allegedly struck the woman in the face, her son entered the room.
He and his mother were then sent into the bedroom, while the invaders threatened to stomp on the head of the man remaining on the floor. Instead, they fled the scene without any cash or drugs.
The trio and a fourth man were arrested in Kelowna later that evening. Police later recovered the shotgun which, apparently unbeknownst to the suspects, was inoperable.
Judge Gale Sinclair agreed to a joint submission from Crown and defence lawyer Paul Delrossi, who called for the same conditional sentence as that handed down against co-accused Morgan MacDonald last month.
Sinclair quoted a pre-sentence report which described the accused as a follower and a “naive individual”, rather than the central figure in the incident.
McKenzie was handed a sentence of two years less a day, with the first 12 months to be served under 24-hour house arrest. He faces a 9 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. curfew for the remainder of the sentence and must perform 50 hours of community work service. Three other charges, including two counts of robbery, were stayed.
Charges remain outstanding against the third suspect, Frank Sandor, who allegedly carried the shotgun. A warrant was issued Oct. 26 after he failed to appear in court.
