Smash and grab nets perpetrator eight months

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

LETHBRIDGE HERALDdshurtz@lethbridgeherald.com

A case of smash and grab to satisfy a sweet tooth and nicotine addiction has earned a Lethbridge man a stint in jail, but he won’t have to spend any more time behind bars.

Nathan Luke Brewer was sentenced Tuesday in Lethbridge provincial court after he pleaded guilty to a single charge of breaking into a place other than a house, with the intent to commit an indictable offence. He was sentenced to eight months in jail, but given credit for the equivalent amount of time he’d already spent in remand custody, and released.

During the evening of May 25 of this year Brewer, 32, and another individual approached the gas bar at the northside Canadian Tire. Brewer smashed one of the windows with a hatchet and grabbed candy and cigarettes.

When Brewer was arrested, police found him in possession of the hatchet, chocolate bars and a small amount of fentanyl.

“To a certain extent this was a crime of opportunity,” Crown Prosecutor Clayton Giles told court. “A period of incarceration of eight months will hopefully provide (a) significant deterrent for this individual.”

Additional charges of possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose, possession of break-in tools and drug possession were withdrawn.

Giles noted Brewer, 32, has a lengthy criminal record, which includes convictions for property related offences and minor violence.

Lethbridge lawyer Tracy Hembroff described some of her client’s struggles growing up and said Brewer’s mother left him when he was only three years old and he and his three siblings were raised by his father, whose own life was impacted by the residential school system.

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