Man gets jail for offences he doesn’t remember

By Delon Shurtz - Lethbridge Herald on June 29, 2023.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDdshurtz@lethbridgeherald.com

A 26-year-old Lethbridge man who doesn’t remember committing a robbery and stealing thousands of dollars worth of diamond rings, has been sentenced to a year in jail.

Although he has no memory of the two unrelated offences, Payton McDonald pleaded guilty last week in Lethbridge court of justice to single charges of robbery and theft over $5,000. He received a jail sentence of eight months for the robbery, and four months for the theft, but after receiving credit for the equivalent of about nine months spent in remand custody, he only has three months left to serve.

On Dec. 14 of last year McDonald was at the northside Canadian Tire store where he selected a large machete worth $100, put it in a bag at the self checkout, but left without paying for it. He was seen by a loss prevention officer, who recognized him as a person who was under a no-trespass order, and he approached McDonald and told him to return the stolen property.

McDonald, however, removed the machete from its package but not its sheath and threatened the employee before fleeing.

“Mr. McDonald raised the knife over his head in a threatening manner, and stepped forward toward (the officer), telling him to stay back,” explained Crown Prosecutor Clayton Giles, noting the officer thought McDonald was going to strike him with the weapon, and was so surprised by the threat he fell to the ground.

“Had he actually taken an honest-to-goodness swing at him, we’d probably be looking for two to three years of jail.”

Only three days later McDonald was at the Charm Diamond Centre in the Park Place Mall and told the clerk he had recently inherited some money and wanted to look at rings. The sales clerk showed him three diamond rings worth a total of $34,000.

McDonald asked for a pen and paper to do some calculations, then grabbed the rings and ran from the store. Police were able to recover only one of the rings during a search of a residence.

“I am truly troubled by the amount of valuation that the Charm Diamond Centre is out,” Giles said.

He said McDonald likely can’t remember the offences because “he was far too intoxicated by one of the intoxicants he had become addicted to, to be able to recall doing this.”

Although the length of the two jail terms were jointly recommended by the Crown and defence, Justice Erin Olsen suggested the sentences may be too short.

“A robbery at a convenience store would typically fall in that two-to-three-year range, on a guilty plea, I think,” Olsen said. “So I’d like to understand how we get to eight months.”

She said the theft of the rings may also warrant a longer jail sentence.

“The theft, I would think, seems, regardless of his memory issues, not opportunistic but planned; that he was there on a ruse because I gather he did not actually have an inheritance to spend. And four months for over $30,000 in jewelry seems a bit low to me…without an explanation for what factors everybody considered.”

Giles said even though the incident at the Canadian Tire store is technically a robbery because McDonald threatened the loss prevention officer with the machete, the confrontation only occurred after McDonald left the store; he didn’t go into the store to commit a violent robbery.

Giles suggested McDonald was given a break on the theft of the rings because he pleaded guilty, has only a small criminal record for minor offences, and it occurred only three days after the robbery, giving it the feel of a small crime spree during which McDonald simply went off the rails.

Lethbridge lawyer Cara Lebenzon also noted her client’s father died recently, and he suffers from schizophrenia and post traumatic stress disorder from growing up with abuse. McDonald is also heavily addicted to methamphetamine and fentanyl.

“And as your honour knows, polysubstance abuse disorder mixed with mental health challenges is even more aggravating for a young individual like Mr. McDonald,” Lebenzon said.

Olsen said the sentences still seem “extremely low”, but she acknowledged that a Supreme Court of Canada decision directs trial judges to accept joint submissions unless there are significant reasons not to.

In addition to his sentence, McDonald was ordered to make restitution of $21,998 to the jewelry store.

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