Numerous property convictions result in 15 month sentence

By Delon Shurtz - Lethbridge Herald on October 20, 2022.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDdshurtz@lethbridgeherald.com

A 62-year-old man has received a 15-month jail sentence for committing numerous criminal offences between 2018 and 2022.

Kennedy Fitzgerald Waldron was sentenced this week in Lethbridge provincial court, where he pleaded guilty to charges of shopbreaking to commit mischief, causing a disturbance, criminal harassment, uttering threats to cause death or bodily harm, housebreaking, possession of a weapon, and several breaches.

On June 30, 2018 Waldron broke into Lethbridge business Journey Outdoors by smashing a large hole in a window at the front of the business. The break-in triggered an alarm and when police arrived they found the owners of the business standing over Waldron, who was lying on the floor with his hands above his head. Police also noted significant damage, including display cases and merchandise scattered around the store.

Waldron told police he had broken into the business for his own safety, but he didn’t offer any further explanation.

Nearly two years later, on March 28, 2020, Waldron was causing a disturbance downtown where he was yelling, screaming and swearing while riding a bicycle in an alley. At one point Waldron got off the bike and took two poles out of his backpack and swung them around in a threatening manner, but not at anyone in particular.

Following a bit of a confrontation with police officers, he was arrested, charged then released shortly afterward on an undertaking.

Almost exactly a year later, Waldron was arrested for criminally harassing and threatening a woman, with whom he once lived and was a friend. Police responded to a mental disorder disturbance in which Waldron was riding around a woman’s residence while repeatedly making odd comments. The woman also told police Waldron had been at her son’s elementary school the day before and followed him home. When the woman called police, she said Waldron was standing at her front door and police had been to her residence several times in the past week because Waldron was harassing her.

When police arrived the woman explained Waldron had been yelling and insisting he had possessions at her house, which she denied. She said he had previously come into her house multiple times during the day and night, would yell and scream and refuse to leave. On one occasion he used a flame thrower to break windows, and he poisoned her dog and threatened to beat up anyone who came to her home.

“She was afraid to be there by herself so she had some friends stay with her,” Crown Prosecutor James Rouleau told court. “She also describes, and I’m quoting her directly here, ‘it’s just been a pain in the ass.’ She wants Kennedy (Waldron) to leave her alone.” Rouleau said the woman estimates Waldron, who has been diagnosed with schizophrenia, has threatened her about 100 times.

Waldron was arrested and released with a condition he not have any contact with the woman. However, he returned to her house about 12:44 a.m. the very next day. The woman heard something outside her house and investigated, and found Waldron in the backyard. A verbal confrontation ensued, and the altercation between the two became physical and the woman sprayed him twice in the face, then forced him out of the house and called police.

Waldron was in trouble again on April 24, 2021, when he returned to the woman’s house and was subsequently charged with two breaches by contravening release orders prohibiting him from contacting the woman and going to her residence.

“He’s just around, there’s nothing much aggravating there,” Rouleau noted.

Then on June 5 of this year, police responded to a disturbance and found Waldron, who was on release conditions that he not have any weapons, in possession of a letter opener that had been sharpened and was attached to a lanyard hanging around his neck. Police also caught him with 7.4 grams of methamphetamine.

Rouleau pointed out that a 2021 letter from the Southern Alberta Forensic Psychiatry Centre in Calgary indicates Waldron has a history of mental health issues going back to 2009. Although he has been deemed fit to stand trial, Waldron suffers from alcohol and polysubstance use disorder, bipolar disorder, cognitive disorder and other mental health issues, without which his offences would likely warrant a longer jail sentence, Rouleau added.

He suggested that in addition to jail, Waldron should be placed on probation for a year, during which he would be prohibited from contacting the female complainant and her son and from going near her residence, place of employment and place of worship.

“I want him to stay away from those individuals. It seems that they’ve gone through more than enough.”

Lethbridge lawyer Darcy Shurtz explained Waldron committed the offences at a time when he was unable to get community services to help with his mental health issues and he turned to drugs. He had also been seriously injured several years ago during a robbery, had been placed on medications and was doing well. But that ended with the pandemic.

“Once COVID hit, a number of the services and the support he had in place shut down and he didn’t have access to those, and he was starting to use narcotics which really affected his mental health on top of the fact he wasn’t taking his medications,” Shurtz said. “And that’s where we end up with him committing all these offences over and over again and continually going back to her house.”

Shurtz noted Waldron still struggles with some addiction, but he is back on his medication and doing better.

Although sentenced to 15 months in jail, Waldron was given credit for the equivalent of 12 months spent in remand custody, leaving three months to serve. He must submit a sample of his DNA for the National DNA Data Bank, and he is prohibited for life from possessing weapons.

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