A Southwestern Ontario man has just recently been sentenced to about two months in jail for a rural Lambton County break-in that took place nearly four years ago.
A Southwestern Ontario man has just recently been sentenced to about two months in jail for a rural Lambton County break-in that took place nearly four years ago.
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Officers found a suspicious vehicle parked on Cairo Road in Dawn-Euphemia Township on Feb. 2, 2021 around 1:30 am, Lambton OPP said at the time. Two people were arrested after the officers noticed footprints in the snow and signs of forced entry into a nearby vacant farmhouse.
Court records show the farmhouse is on Cairo Road between Mosside and Bentpath lines just north of Bothwell.
Kyle Lockyer, 31, from Dawn-Euphemia, and a 49-year-old Bothwell woman were both charged with breaking and entering with intent, possessing break-in instruments, possessing stolen property worth less than $5,000, and possessing meth, police said at the time. They were released with court dates in March 2021, police added.
More than 3.5 years later, Lockyer, now 35, pleaded guilty in a Sarnia courtroom to the lesser included offense to breaking and entering of being unlawfully in a dwelling house and one count of breaching lease and the rest of the charges were dropped. For that, he was sentenced to 50 days in jail.
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It’s unclear where Lockyer, who also has ties to Blenheim, has been for the past three years, but the court heard a warrant for his arrest in Sarnia was executed in August and he has several other outstanding charges in other areas of the region.
Records show as of Friday he still has one outstanding case in St. Thomas and seven in Chatham-Kent.
Lockyer’s lawyer told the Sarnia judge his client, a welder, has struggled with drug use most of his adult life, but it took a sharp turn and got worse around the time of the Lambton County break-in in early 2021. However, he has been doing better while in jail, he said.
Justice Michael Epstein told Lockyer, who declined a chance to speak, he’s glad to see he’s taken steps while in custody to put himself in a better position.
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“But your record is atrocious and I think that the sentence proposed here is extremely lenient, bearing in mind your record,” he said. “However, it’s a joint position from responsible counsel.”
The sentence the lawyers suggested included 30 days for the break-in and 20 days for the lease breach plus one year of probation banning him from the farmhouse and from talking to his former co-accused. He had enough pre-plea custody credit to fully serve the sentence, but wasn’t getting out of jail due to his other outstanding charges, the court heard.
Lockyer is scheduled to appear in St. Thomas court on Wednesday from jail while pre-trials into his various charges in Chatham-Kent are scheduled for early December.
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