Woman sentenced for hotel theft, housebreaking and other charges
By Delon Shurtz on March 20, 2021.
LETHBRIDGE HERALDdshurtz/@lethbridgeherald.com
While it’s not unusual for hotel guests to leave with tiny bars of soap and little bottles of shampoo tucked into their suitcases, Chassidy Lynn Morin went a little overboard.
After staying at the Holiday Inn in Lethbridge last May, the 42-year-old woman checked out with towels, hangers and even linen, worth a total of about $1,000.
Morin, who has a lengthy criminal record, pleaded guilty Friday in Lethbridge provincial court to a single count of theft under $5,000 and was sentenced to seven months in jail. She also pleaded guilty to charges of breaching release conditions, housebreaking and failure to attend court, for which she received another 20 days in jail.
The charge of housebreaking relates to an incident in which Morin rang the doorbell of a Coaldale home then walked in before the residents answered the door. She refused to leave an demanded food and a drink, but the homeowners refused. Morin finally left, but not before taking a pair of boots, and leaving behind her own boots,
“These interactions could have gone a lot more sour than they did,” Crown Prosecutor Clayton Giles told court.
Lethbridge lawyer Ingrid Hess explained her client suffered many childhood traumas and began using drugs at an early age. And while she had about eight years of sobriety, she fell on hard times the past two years and began using drugs again.
Hess added, however, Morin has “gone straight” during her time in custody and hopes to go into treatment when she is released.
Although sentenced to a total of 230 days in jail, Morin was given credit for the equivalent of 126 days spent in pre-trial custody, leaving 104 days on her sentence. She must also submit a sample of her DNA for the National DNA Databank.
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Strange.. why didn’t she take the TV?
I suppose that would mean that a drug user has full rationale and autonomy to make informed decisions.