A Chicago man who was just handed a six-month jail sentence in Toronto for groping three young women on the streets got another 90 days this week in Sarnia for blowing through the Blue Water Bridge to illegally get into Canada.
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Lonelle Price, 37, was arrested last fall by Toronto police following a probe into a string of sexual assaults. Toronto police said in early October a suspect approached multiple women from behind or from the side and sexually assaulted them before fleeing. They issued photos of a suspect and asked the public’s help in identifying them.
Price was arrested soon after and has been in jail since then. Earlier this month, he pleaded guilty to three counts of assault and was sentenced to six months in jail by a Toronto judge, who called the acts violence against women.
On Tuesday, Price pleaded guilty to a Sarnia courtroom by video link from the Toronto South Detention Center to one of the charges he was facing there, a single count of contravention of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act by failing to comply with a removal order. He got another three months.
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The court heard between May 2019 and December 2022, Price tried to come into Canada illegally through multiple entry points including BC, Quebec and Ontario. He was ordered deported multiple times, yet kept trying to come back, sometimes the same day or the next day.
On Dec. 22, 2022, three days after his most recent removal, Price drove a car past border officers at the Blue Water Bridge near Sarnia and headed east on Highway 402. A Canada-wide warrant was issued for his arrest. He was arrested in October 2023 for sex-related offences in Toronto.
Following his respective guilty pleas, both Ontario courtrooms heard Price was a former truck driver and part-time comedian who started experiencing schizophrenia symptoms about five years ago. He grew estranged from his family, became paranoid, and tried to start a new life on his own.
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“That seemed to have prompted his return, and constant return, into Canada,” defence lawyer Sabrina Feldman told Justice Mark Poland in Sarnia.
Price initially found to be unfit last fall and was sent to the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto. He has improved since then with the help of regular medication, the court heard.
“Mr. Price is certainly remorseful,” Feldman said. “He’s certainly able to appreciate the inappropriateness of his actions.”
Brian Higgins, the federal prosecutor in Sarnia, recalled Price looked noticeably better after getting treatment.
Price apologized.
“I’m sorry about all the port of entries,” he told Poland. “I was just trying to have a new life hopefully over here and it wasn’t working on the fact that I wasn’t a born citizen.”
Both lawyers suggested 90 days. Justice Mark Poland agreed with the suggested sentence.
“It makes a great deal of sense,” he said.
Poland added he was really glad to hear Price, who he noted had reduced moral blameworthiness, has worked with the mental-health staff and is taking medication.
“I really hope that you’re on the path to recovery, sir,” he said.
But he included a final note that Canada is not a destination for him.
“That’s just the bottom line here,” he said.
Feldman said Price plans to return to Chicago after serving his sentence in Ontario.
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