Jail time for mischief, being unlawfully in a house

By Delon Shurtz - Lethbridge Herald on April 30, 2022.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDdshurtz@lethbridgeherald.com

When a Lethbridge woman awoke about 1 a.m. on March 4 and saw Andrew Michael Marshall talking to her partner, she assumed her partner had let Marshall into their home.
Her partner, however, thought she had let Marshall in.
They were both obviously wrong, and realized Marshall had entered their home, without their permission, through an unlocked door.
Marshall, 32, pleaded guilty Friday in Lethbridge provincial court to a charge of being unlawfully in a house, and was sentenced to 10 days in jail.
Court was told Marshall had been couch surfing in the weeks previous and had slept on the couple’s couch sometime before. However, he was kicked out because he was using drugs, and advised he was no longer welcome in the home.
Marshall also pleaded guilty to one count of mischief to property and was sentenced to an additional 30 days in jail.
During the afternoon of Feb. 11 of this year a woman called police and said Marshall had damaged some of her property. When police arrived at the woman’s residence they noticed a pane of glass in the door had been smashed and a TV that was outside of the residence was cracked. The windshield of a vehicle parked nearby was also cracked, and there was blood on it.
The woman told police she had been sleeping when Marshall began banging on her door while yelling and screaming.
“He knocked so hard that he smashed the screen door window,” Crown Prosecutor Sheena Campbell told court.
Lethbridge lawyer Vincent Guinan agreed with the facts described by the Crown, but added Marshall had been in a dispute with the woman over an urn that was in her house. The urn, Guinan said, was later turned over to Marshall’s uncle.
“Mr. Marshall had left behind a small pink urn that contained his mother’s ashes, and it appears that may have been part of the issue with him attending at the residence,” Campbell confirmed.
Guinan added his client suffers from “drug problems” but has been doing better.
“He’s getting sober, getting better,” Guinan said. “There were some mental health concerns but he’s definitely becoming more stable.”
Although sentenced to a total of 40 days in jail, Marshall was given credit for time he already spent in remand custody, leaving him with 17 days to serve.

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