A downtown dealer arrested with an array of hard drugs, a loaded revolver and thousands of dollars in his pocket was sentenced in Brantford court recently to another 12 years of incarceration.
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Police were investigating John J. Wilkinson, 43, as a suspected dealer and got search warrants for his West Street home and car earlier this year.
When they saw him heading for his Dodge Charger in March, carrying a red Nike duffel bag, they arrested him and found he was carrying a Ruger .357 magnum handgun in his waist band, loaded with six bullets.
Wilkinson had fentanyl, cocaine, methamphetamine and oxycodone in his duffel bag and $3,770 in his pants.
Inside the house, police found more drugs, digital scales, packaging material, a vacuum sealer, a money counter and a 12-gauge shotgun with ammunition.
In total, said federal prosecutor Kevin McGilly, more than $80,000 worth of drugs was seized.
“I don’t know if you are aware,” McGilly said to visiting Justice Rick Libman, “but our community is quite small and fentanyl has devastated Brantford.
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“We have one of the highest overdose rates in the country and you can’t walk down the street without seeing the problems fentanyl causes the users.”
That was why McGilly and the provincial Crown attorney suggested a 13-year sentence for the repeat offender, who pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of drugs for trafficking, possession of a prohibited firearm and possession of a gun while under orders not to have firearms.
“A message needs to be sent to Mr. Wilkinson and like-minded people that those involved in dealing fentanyl will be dealt with harshly by the courts.”
Defense lawyer Arooba Shakeel agreed with the long sentence but asked that Wilkinson be granted some enhanced time served due to the harsh conditions he faced in Maplehurst Correctional Complex while awaiting his trial.
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“He described the conditions as horrible and dehumanizing,” said Shakeel, noting Wilkinson was housed with two others in a two-person cell where lock-downs due to staff shortages were constant.
“He got 20 minutes for a shower every third day, out in the yard once a week, had no clean sheets in approximately three months and the cells were not cleaned or garbage emptied.”
Phone use was drastically cut and often inmates had to choose between having their shower and making a phone call, the judge was told.
All that led to anger and increased violence at the jail and worsened Wilkinson’s own mental health issues.
Libman agreed to a three-month reduction in the sentence for the issues, adding it to his regular time served to take a year off the 13-year sentence he imposed.
“It’s appropriate to impose a lengthy penitentiary sentence of 13 years,” said Libman, “but to your credit, you saved a considerable amount of short time and acknowledged your role in these offenses.”
Wilkinson’s drugs and weapons were seized and he was placed on another life-time weapons ban.
@EXPSGamble
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