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Decision information:
Abstract: Transcript of the Reasons for Sentence
Decision Content
R. v. McNeely 2009 NWTSC 38
S-1-CR2008000073
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE NORTHWEST TERRITORIES
IN THE MATTER OF:
HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN
- vs. -
BILLY JOHNNY McNEELY
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Transcript of the Reasons for Sentence by The Honourable
Justice V.A. Schuler, at Yellowknife in the Northwest
Territories, on June 1st A.D., 2009.
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APPEARANCES:
Ms. S. Smallwood: Counsel for the Crown
Mr. T. Boyd: Counsel for the Accused
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Charge under s. 145(3) x 2 Criminal Code of Canada
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1 THE COURT: The offences that Mr. McNeely
2 has pleaded guilty to are serious offences. They
3 are offences against the administration of
4 justice. He was on an undertaking that required
5 that he not contact or communicate with Erin
6 Goose and also Thomas Kakfwi and yet in very
7 obvious breach of that undertaking, he moved into
8 the house or moved back into the house where
9 those people were living without having done
10 anything to seek a change to the undertaking to
11 allow him to do that.
12 Obviously the undertaking with those
13 conditions was put into place for a certain
14 reason. Obviously Mr. McNeely was ordered not to
15 contact those people and whether or not he had
16 another place to live, it is a very blatant
17 breach of the undertaking to simply have contact
18 with the two individuals in question and in fact
19 move back into the house with them.
20 Now Mr. McNeely does have a criminal record.
21 He does have a number of convictions for other
22 offences that also involve breaches of his
23 obligation to show respect for the administration
24 of justice - failures to attend court, escaping
25 lawful custody, resisting arrest, failing to
26 comply with a recognizance. So I have to take
27 that into account as well, not from the point of
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1 view of trying to punish him again for those
2 offences that he has already been sentenced for
3 but from the point of view that Mr. McNeely has
4 got to realize that he cannot continue to simply
5 disregard the obligations that he has when he
6 comes into contact with the justice system.
7 But also, Mr. McNeely, I am sure you
8 probably realize that the more you accumulate
9 those types of charges, the less likely it is
10 that you are going to be successful in getting
11 out on bail if you get charged again with
12 something else. So you are not helping yourself
13 by accumulating convictions for these types of
14 offences.
15 He has been in custody now since his other
16 charges were dealt with, in terms of sentences,
17 for just over seven months awaiting trial on the
18 robbery charge and these two breach charges. The
19 robbery charge has been stayed by the Crown so I
20 am only dealing with the breach charges. He has
21 pleaded guilty to those charges so I take all of
22 that into account.
23 I do take into account that Mr. McNeely is
24 now 28 years old and that there has been a change
25 in his personal situation in that he now has a
26 child. It appears that he has had work in the
27 past. He has worked for First Air cargo. He may
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1 be able to get on there again. He does have an
2 interest in improving his skills and going to
3 school, and it sounds as though he may have some
4 opportunity to get funding to do that. So that
5 is a reason, in my view, why I can have some hope
6 that he will change his lifestyle and that he
7 will now, at the age of 28 and being a father,
8 put behind him all these run-ins with the law,
9 committing offences and ending up in jail.
10 Because I am sure, Mr. McNeely, you don't
11 want your child to grow up with a father who is
12 in jail. And I am sure that you would also like
13 to set a good example for your child and getting
14 into trouble with the law, committing offences,
15 ending up in jail and breaching the conditions
16 that you are on and not showing respect for the
17 Court, is not a good example to set for your
18 child. And I am sure that you don't want your
19 child to end up in the same sort of cycle of
20 problems and trouble and ending up in jail. You
21 are the adult; you have to set the good example
22 for your child. And the community, society, have
23 to be able to rely on you to do that. Whatever
24 your own problems in the past may have been, you
25 can make a decision now and you can start with a
26 clean slate.
27 And partly for that reason, I am not going
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1 to put you on probation. I am going to, in
2 effect, let you start with a clean slate. I
3 haven't heard that there are any other
4 outstanding charges so I am going to assume that
5 once you are sentenced here today you can walk
6 out of here. But it will be up to you then to
7 take that step. Don't walk out of here and go to
8 the bar. Walk out of here and go home to your
9 wife and child and start working on having a good
10 family life.
11 The offences for which you have now been
12 convicted are, as I say, serious. People
13 shouldn't be interfering with witnesses and by
14 interfering I mean breaching conditions that they
15 are to stay away from them, even if the witnesses
16 are happy to go along with it, which I take it
17 may have been the case in this particular
18 situation. But because of the seriousness of
19 them, what I am going to order is that as a
20 global sentence on both counts in the Indictment,
21 the sentence be one day in jail served by your
22 attendance here in court and the credit that I am
23 giving you is six months jail.
24 Is there anything else, counsel, that I need
25 to deal with? The victim surcharge will be
26 waived.
27 MS. SMALLWOOD: Nothing else, Your Honour.
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1 MR. BOYD: No, Your Honour, thank you.
2 THE COURT: Thank you. Mr. McNeely, I
3 really do hope that you will take this as a clean
4 slate and that you will show that, as I say, you
5 can be a good father to your child. I hope we
6 don't see you back here again.
7 THE ACCUSED: Thanks, Your Honour.
8 THE COURT: All right, we will close
9 court.
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12 Certified to be a true and
accurate transcript pursuant
13 to Rules 723 and 724 of the
Supreme Court Rules,
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18 Lois Hewitt, CSR(A), RPR, CRR
Court Reporter
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