A Brantford drug dealer is now in prison on two major sentences after he was found with a loaded sawed-off shotgun while he was awaiting trial on previous firearm charges.
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James C. Mackie, 32, had a long record and was under repeated orders to never have a firearm when he fired toward a complaining client in a Brantford motel in May 2022.
He pleaded not guilty to a host of charges in that case and was released on bail until the trial.
But in May 2023, Mackie became the target of a Brantford Police investigation and, when officers entered his bedroom with a search warrant, they found the dealer with a stash of drugs worth more than $40,000 and the loaded shotgun just meters away from where he was hiding, court was told.
“The severity of gun crimes can’t be exaggerated in our specific community,” said Crown attorney Brett Moodie at Mackie’s sentencing.
“Here in Brantford, we’re seeing an epidemic of gun crime and the associated fear and harm in the community.”
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Moodie said a sawed off shotgun is “expressly designed to kill or wound” and has no legitimate purpose.
He also said Mackie was running a fairly high-level drug trafficking operation and, with the guns, he led the lawyers to agree on another eight-year sentence for trafficking, possession of a loaded firearm, having a firearm while prohibited and breaching a release order.
Along with the weapon, a search of the man’s room found just over 100 grams of fentanyl, a small amount of methamphetamine, another replica gun and almost $3,000 in cash, all of which Moodie showed the court in photographs.
Mackie had pleaded not guilty to shooting out the motel window and 14 other charges but, in a trial last year, he was found guilty by Justice Colette Good on 10 firearm offenses – five of them counts of possessing a firearm while prohibited because he had five previous orders against ever having one.
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Last November, Good sentenced Mackie to seven years in prison, less about one year of time served.
Facing 23 more charges after his May 2023 drugs and guns arrest, Mackie and his lawyer came to an agreement with the federal and provincial Crowns to plead guilty, so once his first sentence is complete, he will begin an eight-year sentence.
“I’m quite impressed you’ve stepped up, knowing that the court is going to sentence you to (essentially) a 15-year sentence,” said Good.
“Not too many people would plead guilty in the face of that and it tells me that you know it’s wrong and you’re willing to accept the court’s punishment.”
Good noted that guns in Brantford used to be a rarity.
“Now they’re in common place. Each and every day you hear about a gun being involved in some sort of crime.”
She noted that Mackie’s “user-addict” status cut two ways: he struggled with his own addiction but was clearly aware of the harm he was handing out.
“You never know who’s going to overdose.”
By law, Good placed Mackie on another life-time weapons prohibition.
@EXPSGamble
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