Many Sarnia residents caught selling drugs such as fentanyl and meth climb a ladder of convictions starting with simple drug possession and court breaches before arriving at trafficking, Cassandra Chalmers’ lawyer pointed out.
Many Sarnia residents caught selling drugs such as fentanyl climb a ladder of convictions that start with simple drug possession and court breaches before arriving at trafficking, Cassandra Chalmers’ lawyer pointed out.
But that wasn’t the case for Chalmers, who had no prior criminal record when she was caught with $15,000 in fentanyl and meth last year.
“This isn’t something that we see every day,” defense lawyer Nick Cake said Monday in a Sarnia courtroom.
The increasingly serious path of convictions is generally tied to drug addiction, Cake explained, but that wasn’t the reason his client was selling drugs from his Campbell Street home. Instead, she was simply a misguided entrepreneur who’d lost her job amid the COVID-19 pandemic and was trying to make money.
“She was a for-profit operation,” Cake said.
Chalmers pleaded guilty on May 4 to two drug-trafficking charges – fentanyl and meth – along with possession of brass knuckles, a banned weapon, and failing to comply with a release order since she wasn’t supposed to have weapons at the time. She was sentenced Monday to four years in prison.
Justice Deborah Austin told Chalmers she risked the lives and safety of other Sarnia-Lambton residents.
“And being, really, one of the agents of great harm in this community in making this dangerous drug available,” the judge said of fentanyl. “Methamphetamine, as well, in a much larger quantity.”
After investigating Chalmers for about three months, the Sarnia police vice unit stopped her while she was driving her orange Pontiac Sunfire at Russell and Kintail streets. In her car and at her home, officers found nearly 18 grams of fentanyl worth almost $9,000, more than 50 grams of meth worth about $5,000, various other drugs and weapons, including two sets of brass knuckles, and more than $1,200 in cash.
Chalmers, who had a handful of family and friends in the courtroom Monday, apologized.
“I’d just like to say I’m sorry for everyone that I’ve hurt, my family, everyone here, the community, and the next chapter here, wherever I go, I’ll take that and educate myself and hopefully open new opportunity,” she said. “And I’ll be sure I will not be back in this seat again.”
Austin called it a sincere apology, “but that cannot take away from the harm caused by the offenses that you committed.”
Assistant federal prosecutor Brian Higgins said the case was extremely serious and cited forensic toxicologist Karen Woodall, who previously said fentanyl is 20 times more potent than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine.
He also noted a pre-sentence report written about Chalmers was positive. Both lawyers suggested four years for the fentanyl, 1.5 years for the meth, three months for the brass knuckles and one month for the breach, but recommended the sentences run concurrently.
Austin said it was an appropriate award.
Chalmers had two weeks lopped off her sentence for pre-trial custody. She’s also banned from weapons for 10 years while other charges were withdrawn.
Chalmers is the latest Sarnia resident to receive a lengthy prison sentence for selling fentanyl. A 29-year-old man was sentenced last month to five years in prison while, two months ago, a Sarnia woman was slapped with 7.5 years. In 2021, a pair of Sarnia residents caught selling fentanyl received five- and seven-year prison sentences respectively.
A 29-year-old Sarnia man will be sentenced later this fall after being convicted of selling fentanyl in two major Sarnia police drug busts in less than a year.