Man sentenced for theft from parents home

By Delon Shurtz on September 22, 2021.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDdshurtz@lethbridgeherald.com

Kyle Robert Mutter knew his parents would be gone on holiday in August of last year, so all he had to do was wait until they were gone before he broke into their home.
What he didn’t know, however, is that his father had installed video surveillance, and when his parents returned from vacation and realized their home had been broken into, they only had to check the video to see who the culprit was.
“The video clearly showed that Kyle Mutter was the one who broke into the house and was going in and out with duffel bags on multiple occasions,” said Crown Prosecutor Adam Zelmer during a hearing Tuesday in Lethbridge provincial court.
Mutter pleaded guilty to one count of housebreaking and commit theft in relation to the break-in, and was sentenced to four months in jail and one year of probation. He also pleaded guilty to unrelated charges of drug possession, failure to comply with release conditions, and possession of stolen property over $5,000, for which he was sentenced to another four months in jail.
On Feb. 14 of this year Mutter was at large on a release order which required him to maintain a curfew. Police officers checked on him at a northside residence but he wasn’t there. Police learned he hadn’t been at that location since November of 2020.
Then on Sept. 8 of this year police received a complaint that a U-Hall had been running during the night and two people may be inside and overdosing. Police found Mutter and a woman inside the vehicle, and a search uncovered numerous stolen items including bikes, tools, clothes, sunglasses, drugs, various bank cards, 50 gift cards, and a driver’s licence, bank card and passport belonging to a B.C. woman.
The woman confirmed the items had been stolen from her home during a break-in four days earlier.
The Crown pointed out Mutter’s criminal record shows convictions, primarily for theft and failure to comply with release conditions, between 2007 and 2012, then there is a six-year break until 2020 when “he got back into drugs in a fairly hard way.”
Lethbridge lawyer Darcy Shurtz said Mutter tried to get into drug treatment court, but was unsuccessful. However, he is willing to receive treatment and help, possibly through probation.
“Clearly Mr. Mutter has shown that he can go for multiple years of staying out of trouble,” Shurtz said. “I think his issue is he needs to get over his drug addiction, and hopefully spending this next little bit of time in custody will help him sober up, and then hopefully probation will be able to assist him to stay on track with his sobriety.”

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