Kyle Thompson, a 32-year-old Sarnia man who got house arrest for selling meth, was warned if he was caught breaking the rules he could serve the rest of his sentence in a jail cell.
Kyle Thompson, a 32-year-old Sarnia man who got house arrest for selling meth, was warned if he was caught breaking the rules he could serve the rest of his sentence in a jail cell.
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“This conditional sentence is not to be trifled with,” Justice Mark Poland said when he imposed the two-year order in January 2023.
A handcuffed Thompson was brought back into a Sarnia courtroom Monday, where he admitted to Poland he broke one of the rules. After spending 39 days in jail, the judge agreed to let him back out and serve the rest of his sentence at home.
But he also warned him this was his last strike.
“If you come back again, you’ll spend the rest of your time in jail. That’s just how it’s going to work,” Poland said.
Thompson, who was caught in 2020 with nearly 120 grams of crystal meth, is allowed to get essentials such as groceries and prescriptions Saturdays between 1 pm and 4 pm But on July 20, his GPS tracker alerted officials he didn’t get home until 4 :27 pm and, in addition to being late, stopped at an address on Mitton Street South that wasn’t a grocery store or a pharmacy.
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Thompson was arrested Aug. 8 on a warrant for two breaches, although he didn’t admit to the other one Monday. Poland could have ordered him to spend the rest of his sentence, which runs until January, in jail, but at the request of both lawyers he released him after spending the past five-plus weeks behind bars.
Federal prosecutor Brian Higgins said all breaches are serious, but there is a spectrum of seriousness and this was on the lower end. No new charges were laid, he pointed out.
Defense lawyer Joseph Stoesser said his client is well aware the rules are orders, not suggestions, and if he breaks them again it’s very unlikely he’ll be given a third chance to serve his sentence at home.
Thompson was arrested during a traffic stop in March 2020, where police found 119 grams of meth hidden in a red Naloxone kit under the driver’s seat of a silver Volkswagen Jetta. Officers also seized four grams of cocaine and 20 Oxycodone tablets.
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The meth was worth $11,000 and police also found $2,600 in cash.
In January 2023, Higgins and Thompson’s previous defense lawyer, Luigi Perzia, both suggested the two-year conditional sentence. Poland said at the time he would have imposed a longer sentence due to the large amount of the drug, but, based on a 2016 Supreme Court decision, it didn’t pass the test for a judge to reject a joint submission.
He did, however, point out that street drugs are regularly linked to mental-health disorders, crime, homelessness and devastation for the users, their families and the rest of the community.
“Fentanyl kills a lot of people, and it does it quickly. Methamphetamine damages, destroys a lot of people as well. It just does it in a more slow and insidious fashion,” Poland said.
Thompson is a longtime drug user who, as of January 2023, hadn’t put much effort into rehabilitating himself, according to a pre-sentence report.
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