A Prince George Provincial Court judge reserved decision Monday, Jan. 20 on the jail sentence for a man who pleaded guilty to theft under $5,000 and robbery.
The Crown wants Judge Judith Doulis to order a six-year jail sentence for Wilfred Patrick Prince while the defence proposed two years in jail plus three years on probation.
Court heard that Prince, 35, and an unidentified woman entered the River Point Liquor Store just before 11 p.m. on Sept. 14, 2023.
Two employees intervened as the woman began to steal liquor. Prince pulled an imitation firearm — a .177 calibre CO2-powered air pistol — out of his bag, pointed it at the employees and threatened to shoot them.
One of them gained control of the imitation firearm and a knife that Prince had and threw them aside.
Prince, however, withdrew a hammer from his bag and struck one of the employees on the head.
The two employees retreated to a bathroom and Prince took two bottles of liquor. He used the hammer to break the window on the door and flee.
The two employees called 911 and Prince George RCMP arrived at 11:10 p.m. Using a still image from the store surveillance video, Prince was found in the vicinity at 2 a.m. and arrested.
According to a victim impact statement, one of the men was unable to attend school classes for a week and has a permanent patch on his head. He is afraid to work alone during nightshift.
Crown prosecutor Stephanie Bowick said the victim’s injury and Prince’s weapons and level of violence are aggravating factors.
“This was premeditated,” Bowick told Doulis.
“The use of a firearm in the commission of a crime exacerbates its terrorizing effects, whether the firearm is real or a mere imitation,” she said.
Bowick also cited Prince’s lengthy criminal record, which includes 50 court order breaches, 22 youth convictions and 66 adult convictions, for crimes such as break and enter, assault causing bodily harm and possessing a firearm while wearing a disguise.
Prince has 20 convictions for property offences and three prior robbery convictions, including two at 7-Eleven stores.
In 2018, he was sentenced to six years for a 2016 robbery.
Bowick conceded that addiction issues motivated Prince’s behaviour. Other mitigating factors include his guilty plea and Indigenous heritage.
“Prince George has the unenviable reputation for being a small city where violent crime is prevalent,” she said. “There is a significant need for deterrence of robbery in this community.”
Defence lawyer Connor Carleton said Prince was adopted at a young age and his “involvement in the criminal justice system and drug land in Prince George has been pretty much continuous since his childhood.”
Carleton said his client was homeless, drinking and relapsing into opiate use leading up to the 2023 crime.
He proposed Doulis sentence Prince to two years less a day in a provincial jail followed by the maximum three-year probation.
With credit for time served, the sentence would be 729 days.
“I think this is somebody who needs the assistance of resources, both in custody and then subsequently in the community,” Carleton said. “Mr. Prince needs to engage in an intensive treatment program.”
The hearing for Doulis’s decision is to be scheduled.
