A Sarnia man sentenced earlier this year to nine months in jail for waving what appeared to be a handgun downtown has picked up six more months for using a stolen credit card.
A Sarnia man sentenced earlier this year to nine months in jail for waving what appeared to be a handgun downtown has picked up six more months for using a stolen credit card.
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The court recently heard Marcell Page, 39, was seen on video surveillance in late April at the Confederation Street Circle K using the card of a man whose wallet had been stolen from his truck. A Sarnia police officer recognized Page, who has a long criminal record, in the video and he was later arrested.
Assistant Crown attorney Suzanne LaSha asked for six months due to her record, which she noted included a significant sentence from earlier this year.
That was the nine-month sentence Page got in January linked to a fake handgun several people thought was real.
“How terrifying that would be, even though it was no more dangerous than a children’s toy, it looked real and it was terrifying,” Justice Deborah Austin said in January.
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A call came in from a concerned citizen on July 4, 2023 shortly after 5 pm in the 100 block of Christina Street North and officers from the community response division saw what appeared to be a handgun in plain view when they arrived, police said at the time. The gun turned out to be fake, but officers also found other weapons, drugs, and drug-trafficking materials, police said.
Page was arrested on 18 charges. He stayed in jail until January, when he pleaded guilty to carrying an imitation firearm for a dangerous purpose, possessing a prohibited weapon while banned, breaching a recognition, and possessing an identity document.
During Page’s recent sentencing for the stolen credit card, Justice Paul Kowalyshyn said it was particularly aggravating as he was just convicted of a similar offense – the identity document – in January.
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“You knew those weren’t yours to use,” Kowalyshyn said.
Defense lawyer Robert McFadden said his client has a drug issue and admitted his record is not a pretty one.
Page was sentenced in 2013 to more than three months in jail for possessing a dangerous weapon – a knife – along with theft and violating a court order. He was also jailed in 2011 for violent behavior against three former girlfriends, which included holding a knife to one of their throats. Page has had a lifetime weapons ban in place since 2011.
During his latest sentencing, Page apologized to the judge and said he’s battling an addiction.
“I encourage you to continue working on that,” Kowalyshyn said.
Earlier this year, Page told the other judge he’d been using fentanyl for two years when he was arrested with the fake handgun last summer and doesn’t remember much.
“I want to thank the system, if I can, for helping me get off such a hard drug and on the road to recovery and I apologize for everything that has happened between now and then,” he said.
Despite the two sets of guilty pleas, Page is still in jail on other outstanding charges. He returns to court later this month.
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