Six years ago, it was a hot chocolate that burned Jose Demelo after he stole a car. This time, it was a find-my-phone app.
This time, it was a find-my-phone app.
In 2016, the Sarnia resident decided to stop for a drink shortly after swiping a vehicle from a local car dealership and police were able to identify Demelo through the coffee shop’s video footage. He was sentenced two years later to 90 days in jail.
His latest conviction, which came to light this week in a Sarnia courtroom, started when a woman realized her phone, credit and bank cards, and car keys were stolen from her locker inside the Finch Drive YMCA last November. She came out to the parking lot to find her 2018 Hyundai Elantra missing too.
Sarnia police followed various tips as her stolen bank and credit cards were being used at various businesses throughout the city. In the meantime, the woman’s friend was able to track her cellphone through an app, which showed up near where Demelo lived with his mother.
Suspecting he was involved, an officer knocked on the door. The officer noticed Demelo was wearing the same clothes as a suspect seen on video surveillance at one of the stores.
So the officer called the woman’s cellphone number, “and then heard an audible phone ring in an area that’s right next to Mr. Demelo,” assistant Crown attorney Meaghan Jones said while reading an agreed statement of facts.
Demelo, 47, pleaded guilty Wednesday from the Sarnia Jail to a slew of charges linked to this and a handful of other incidents involving stolen vehicles and property, along with multiple probation breaches.
“Mr. Demelo, these facts are discouraging to hear because they reflect a pattern of repetitive criminal activity that is not minor. It has a significant impact on members of the community,” Justice Deborah Austin said as she sentenced him to more than nine months in jail.
The latest conviction had a couple more ties to his hot chocolate pit stop. In both cases, the court was impressed with the officers’ investigatory skills.
“It was good police work following up on the video,” assistant Crown attorney Aniko Coughlan said in 2018.
“Some good efforts by Sarnia Police Services to quickly recover stolen vehicles and to identify your involvement,” Austin said Wednesday, referencing the cellphone tracking.
Also consistent was the source of his criminal activity – drug addiction – and concerns from defense lawyer Robert McFadden. Representing him again Wednesday, McFadden said he talks to Demelo’s mother quite often about her son.
“Her only hope is he gets himself cleaned up before the drugs kill him,” he said. “That’s her exact words to me. She lives in that mortal fear every day of her life and I hope Mr. Demelo, who seems to love his mother, will finally do something about this and change his ways.”
It was a similar situation in 2015, when he was sentenced to four days in jail.
Demelo, wearing a white outfit while sitting inside a small room within the Sarnia Jail, declined a chance to address the court Wednesday.
McFadden added his client had started a treatment program in Ottawa but was kicked out for failing a drug test within the first 10 days. He was on the lam for a while until he turned himself in to Sarnia police. Demelo got credit for about six months in pre-trial custody, leaving him with three-and-a-half months left to serve.
Other charges were withdrawn.