Weeks after pleading guilty to possession of fentanyl in Superior Court in February, a young man – out on release before being sentenced – was arrested for the same crime in April.
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It was a breach so serious, two lawyers and the judge agreed it warranted 10 years in a penitentiary.
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“No doubt a 10-year sentence for a young man is significant,” Brantford’s assistant Crown attorney Tara Mimnagh said at the sentencing of Tyrell Horvath-Jackson.
“But separation from this community might do the trick. Hopefully he improves his life, gets released from jail and never comes back.”
Horvath-Jackson has a long criminal record with non-stop breaches of court orders and minor violence — “the kind of thing you see from someone living on the street” said his lawyer.
But, in 2021, a taxi driver called police for help and, when officers arrived at a local motel, they found Horvath-Jackson hurrying away.
He gave a false name, but an officer knew he was wanted and arrested him. Horvath-Jackson wiggled away and ran but police quickly ground him.
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The man, who was on probation, escaped again and, when officers captured and searched him, they found $1,355 and just over 24 grams of fentanyl.
It took almost two years to reach a guilty plea agreement, with Horvath-Jackson spending much of that time incarcerated, but he eventually got a judicial release with orders to remain home unless with a surety.
After he didn’t show up for court, a bench warrant was issued and a high-enforcement action team went searching for the man, spotting him getting into a taxi on Buchanon Crescent.
Police stopped the cab and, again, Horvath-Jackson ran and was captured, this time with almost 60 grams of fentanyl, 12 grams of cocaine and $1,922 in cash.
In urging Justice David Broad to accept the joint submission, defense lawyer Ian McCuaig said while his client has some family that’s supportive, his non-Canadian father was violently arrested and deported and he has no idea if his mother is still alive.
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“He comes from a place where he doesn’t have a typical family structure,” said McCuaig.
The accused could have argued his charter rights were breached as, during one of his arrests, an officer reached into Horvath-Jackson’s pants to extract a lump he had noticed, which turned out to be drugs. And he could have requested more court resources to be wasted on a preliminary hearing and trial.
“I practice all over southern Ontario and the courthouse at 44 Queen has the most limited set of resources of any community I’ve ever seen,” said McCuaig.
“There are not enough judges, not enough courts, not enough staff. Time is precious over there so this saved a lot of resources and let the judges do other things.”
Horvath-Jackson pleaded guilty to possession of fentanyl for trafficking and told the judge that he’s ready to move on from “this childish behavior”.
“All my 20s are gone,” he said about heading to prison.
“It’s really just coming to me now that this isn’t the life I want to live.”
Broad sentenced Horvath-Jackson to four and six years to be served consecutively on the two matters but reduced the sentence by the equivalent of 37.5 months for the time he’s already been jailed, leaving him more than 6.8 years to serve.
@EXPSGamble
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