Knife-packing man gets four months after Sarnia grocery store incident

Richard Belfitt has to stay away from a Sarnia grocery store and one of its employees for the next year following an incident there with a knife.

Avoiding the store shouldn’t be a problem, since the 34-year-old Orillia man has no ties to Sarnia and planned to leave as soon as he got out of the Sarnia Jail after serving his four-month sentence.

Defense lawyer Terry Brandon pointed out Belfitt, due to his mental health and addiction issues, doesn’t even remember the grocery store staffer he had the knife around and briefly fought in late March. But he does recall the other man he must stay away from for the next 12 months: a fellow inmate whom he fought in the jail’s shower area two months later.

“He regrets the entire situation and how it all escalated,” Brandon said.

Belfitt pleaded guilty recently to counseling an offense that is not committed and possessing a weapon for a dangerous purpose outside the grocery store March 23 – a robbery charge was dropped – and assault in the jail on May 21.

Belfitt was sentenced to a total of four months in jail, as lawyers on both sides suggested.

The court heard an agreed statement of facts that reflected what Sarnia police had said earlier about the late-March incident at the Exmouth Street shopping plaza near East Street North. A grocery store employee on a break was approached by a suspect, who turned out to be Belfitt, outside the store about 2:30 pm that Thursday.

Belfitt tried to convince the staffer, a 36-year-old Sarnia man, to commit a fraud, but he refused and went back to work.

“The employee had the good sense to say no to that scheme,” Justice Mark Poland said.

The staffer went back outside about 8 pm and Belfitt, who was still in the area, sat down next to him on a bench – awkwardly close – and demanded to use his phone. The employee declined, but agreed to give him some cigarettes.

During the exchange, Belfitt pointed to a knife in his waistband area and again demanded to use his phone. At one point, he reached for the weapon, so the employee went back inside the store.

Still, the staffer was concerned Belfitt was going to try to rob an elderly lady in the area so he went back out and the pair fought briefly before police arrived.

The jailhouse fight, between Belfitt and another inmate amid a confrontation that’d been brewing for some time, took place shortly before 8:30 am on a Sunday about two months later.

Belfitt and his lawyer told the judge that aside from that incident, he was doing well after detoxing while spending several months in jail and hoped he could stay sober after his release.

“Mr. Belfitt, I hope you’re able to do that,” Poland said.

The judge said the 120-day sentence – three months for the knife incident, and one for the assault – was lenient, but he agreed to impose the sentence both lawyers suggested. A one-year probation order bans Belfitt from the store or contacting his two victims. He’s also under a lifetime weapons ban.

The knife was forfeited.

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@ObserverTerry