Mark Konecny’s phone rang while he was in a field behind his house on April 21.
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On the line was a Lambton OPP officer telling him to walk toward them with his hands in the air.
Police surrounded Konecny’s farm on Mandaumin Road in St. Clair Township that Sunday amid reports there were guns and explosives inside the home. Konecny, wearing a camouflage jacket, initially didn’t comply, but eventually walked toward them, laid on his stomach as ordered and was arrested.
While searching his home during the next two days, police found 11 long guns, two high-capacity magazines, 60 rounds of ammo, five bags of explosives and a BB handgun in a vault in a man cave. Konecny, a 40-year-old carpenter, didn’t have a license for any of those weapons.
“Unauthorized possession of firearms is concerning to the community at large,” assistant Crown attorney Sarah Carmody said recently in a Sarnia courtroom.
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But she added they weren’t used to threaten anyone.
He also didn’t have a prior criminal record and this was a complex case, Konecny’s lawyer told the judge after he pleaded guilty to one count of possessing firearms without a license. As a result, both he and the prosecutor suggested house arrest and a curfew as opposed to jail, a sentence the judge agreed to impose.
But Justice Deborah Austin bailed Konecny not to break any of the rules or he could serve the rest of his sentence in a jail cell.
“The consequences are extremely severe,” she said.
The one-year order features six months of house arrest, although he’s allowed to go to work, followed by six months of a daily curfew between 10 pm and 6 am No alcohol is permitted in the house the entire time.
Konecny’s lawyer said his client, who spent six days in custody before getting bail, is motivated to follow the rules as other inmates mistakenly believed he was an undercover police officer while in jail and there were physical altercations.
As part of the plea deal, the rest of the charges he faced were dropped.
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