Needle threat earns man two month jail sentence

By Delon Shurtz on October 29, 2021.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDdshurtz@lethbridgeherald.com

Threatening mall security officers with hypodermic needles has netted a 34-year-old man a two-month jail sentence.
Charles Theodore Big Head was sentenced Wednesday in Lethbridge provincial court after he pleaded guilty to one count of assault with a weapon.
Big Head, 34, was seen about 5 p.m. Sept. 22 carrying items of clothing in a store in the Park Place Shopping Centre. A security officer grew suspicious when Big Head noticed her, then dropped the items he was carrying on the floor. Big Head then chose several more items and walked out of the store without paying, setting off the alarm.
Big Head dropped those items, as well, and walked away, despite being told to stop. He finally turned around and opened two packages of needles, then waved them like weapons toward the security officer and a second security officer who had arrived on the scene.
The officers instructed him to drop the needles, but Big Head refused and left the shopping centre, crossed the street and entered Galt Gardens where he was subdued and arrested by three security officers.
Big Head also pleaded guilty to single counts of breaching release orders and drug possession. Big Head had been ordered by the court to stay away from the shopping centre, but on Oct. 16 he was seen in the mall by security. He was arrested and searched, during which security found a small amount of fentanyl.
Big Head, who defence said suffered from drug addiction but is now sober, was sentenced to 14 days on each of the charges, which will run concurrently to each other and to the 60-day sentence for assault with a weapon. He was, however, given credit of 53 days spent in pre-trial custody, leaving only seven days on his sentence.

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