A Sarnia man with a long criminal record, who recently finished serving four months in jail after police said a couple was threatened with a hammer during an early morning home invasionwas recently sentenced to another two months for assault.
But the longtime lawyer for Dan Plain, a 34-year-old Sarnia resident whose record is tied to drug addiction, said things are starting to change for him.
“He’s at a very different stage of his life,” Terry Brandon said.
Justice Deborah Austin, who recently sentenced Plain to a time-served, two-month sentence, said she hopes he follows through with his plans to turn his life around after he’s out of jail.
“And we don’t see you in trouble again and in custody as a result,” she said.
Ace of Wednesday, Plain has no outstanding charges, records show.
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Plain, from Aamjiwnaang First Nation, originally was facing 11 charges including two counts each of robbery with a weapon, assault with a weapon, uttering threats and breaching probation, and single counts of breaking and entering, possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose, and wearing a disguise with intent linked to an Oct. 22 incident on Afton Drive. Sarnia police previously said a suspect broke into a home there shortly after 4:30 am and demanded valuables from two adult occupants while threatening them with the hammer.
Police said there were no injuries and a suspect who fled from the home was arrested a short time later.
Plaintiff pleaded guilty in January only to being unlawfully in a dwelling house and carrying a weapon – the hammer – for a dangerous purpose and the rest of the charges were dropped. Plain, who was approved for bail about two weeks after the incident but was never released, got a 140-day, time-served sentence, but the judge at the time expressed concerns about his drug use.
A different judge had similar concerns when Plain was back in court in early June pleading guilty to carrying a concealed weapon – a black tactical-style knife – resisting police, prowling at night, mischief worth less than $5,000, and two counts of breaching probation linked to incidents in March and April. He got a 135-day sentence.
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