Jason Waligora told a Sarnia judge after a long road in and of the court system he’s finally wrapped his head around how to straighten his life out.
But Justice Mark Poland pointed out Waligora already had about 42 prior convictions – a rather unattractive criminal record, the judge noted – so asked him what, at this point, has him thinking he’s finally wrapped his head around his issues. Waligora, standing in the prisoner’s box of the Sarnia courtroom, told the judge he lost a brother to drug addiction and wasn’t able to attend the recent funeral for his mother, who died due to an unrelated reason, since he was in jail.
“That really, really hit me hard,” he said Tuesday.
Waligora, 35, said being a father is another motivating factor, as is the fact drugs are slowly killing his friends.
“I’m really not able to go forward being a drug addict,” he said.
Poland, who sentenced him to more than nine months for a slew of drug-fueled convictions, said it’s not a crime to be addicted to drugs, which is common in Sarnia-Lambton and many other communities across Ontario. He did point out to Waligora that drugs are destroying more than just his own life.
“It’s imperiling the public around you,” he said. “Your drug addiction is spilling over and hurting people in the community.”
Waligora pleaded guilty to a long list of charges, including fraud worth less than $5,000, impaired driving, possession of fentanyl, refusing to give a blood sample, resisting police, breaching an undertaking and breaching probation, with many of them linked to drug use.
When he resisted police on Dec. 23, 2021, Waligora had drugs and drug paraphernalia stashed in his underwear and inside his buttocks, but struggled physically with the officers trying to seize them. Amid the search, police found one gram of crack cocaine and 6.9 grams of fentanyl.
“A considerable amount of fentanyl,” Poland said.
Defense lawyer James Guggisberg said the former electrician, despite his lengthy addiction issues, has been sober while in jail and is working on the problem via programs.
Waligora had enough pre-sentence custody to fully serve the sentence but was kept in custody amid another case that’s still before the courts.
He was also fined a total of $3,500 for a pair of impaired driving convictions and banned from driving for two-and-a-half years.
Other charges were withdrawn.