Raymond woman gets jail for assault

By Delon Shurtz on January 23, 2021.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDdshurtz@lethbridgeherald.com

A 23-year-old Raymond woman caught trying to steal items from a grocery store last year has been sentenced for assaulting a store employee and police officer.
Cheyenne Sommerly Tilley was sentenced to 90 days in jail after she pleaded guilty Friday in Lethbridge provincial court to charges of assault with a weapon, assaulting a peace officer and failing to comply with release conditions.
Tilley was caught by a manager of the southside Safeway store as she was stealing items from the store last January. When she was confronted, the 24-year-old woman pulled out a baton and threatened the manager with it.
An off duty RCMP officer witnessed the incident, and identified himself when he intervened in the confrontation with the store manager. Tilley didn’t surrender, however, and threatened the officer with the baton, as well.
“She was arrested by that officer, who took her down to the ground rather quickly,” Crown Prosecutor Clayton Giles told court.
Giles pointed out that even though Tilley never actually struck the officer or store manager, the act of extending the baton to ward off the two men when they confronted her still constitutes an assault.
Giles noted, as well, that at the time of the incident, Tilley was on court-ordered conditions prohibiting her from possessing weapons. And even though she didn’t have any previous adult criminal convictions at the time, Giles said she still deserved a jail sentence.
“Incarceration is warranted for this,” Giles said, adding the volatile incident was dangerous and could have resulted in significant injury or even death.
Tilley won’t serve any more time in custody on the three charges, however. She was given credit for time she has already spent in custody waiting to resolve the charges, effectively concluding her sentence. She remains in custody, though, on additional charges unrelated to the store confrontation, including charges of assault with a weapon and robbery.
The charges stem from an incident last March when police were called to the downtown branch of the Lethbridge Public Library after receiving a report that two women had been assaulted during a public film festival.
Officers were told a woman stole a laptop and two cups of hot coffee, and was confronted by a 73-year-old woman who was one of the organizers of the festival.
The organizer explained the laptop belonged to the library, and following a brief verbal altercation, the younger woman threw one of the cups of coffee in the senior citizen’s face, causing first-degree burns. The assailant fled up the stairs and threw the second cup of coffee at a 78-year-old woman who had been attending the festival and confronted the fleeing suspect. The hot coffee struck the elderly woman in the upper body.
A security officer who heard the commotion rushed to assist the women and recovered the laptop, but the woman got away. Surveillance footage of the subject was later provided to police.
A few days later an officer dealing with a woman at the front counter of the police station recognized her as the unidentified suspect wanted in connection with the robbery at the library and arrested her.
Tilley returns to court Tuesday on those charges.

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