For Myles Alec Hunter, Prince George will be out of bounds once he's completed the jail time he must serve for being found with a sawed-off rifle and nearly 50 rounds of ammunition in an "open air drug market" in the city's downtown.
Hunter, 31, was sentenced Tuesday to nearly two more years in provincial jail followed by two years probation. Among the conditions of his probation is that he can venture no closer than 50 kilometres of city limits.
The outcome stems from an arrest during the early morning of March 22, 2020, when, according to evidence provided to the court, uniformed RCMP in an unmarked vehicle saw someone briefly lean into the passenger window of a taxi in front of the needle exchange at Third and George.
The taxi then turned into a nearby alleyway that had served as a makeshift homeless camp. RCMP circled around to the other end where they could see the taxi head on and saw two more people approach the cab.
Mounties moved in on suspicion that drug transactions were occurring and arrested Alec and the cab's driver.
A search of Alec's satchel uncovered $260 in cash and several baggies containing what was believed to be drugs.
As Alec was being escorted to the RCMP vehicle, he spontaneously uttered that a blue bag in the taxi contained a gun given to him by "Stumpy."
Police subsequently found a blue backpack tucked behind the passenger seat and in it, they found a .22-calibre rifle with both the barrel and stock sawed down, a magazine holding seven .22-calibre bullets and a soft case holding 42 .22-calibre cartridges. A knife was stored in the mesh on the backpack's exterior.
At the time of his arrest, Alec was at large after cutting off the ankle monitor he had been issued while on a release order that required him to attend a residential treatment facility.
Wanting to see a doctor, Alec falsely told police he had swallowed a ball of heroin and was taken to hospital before he was eventually brought into custody.
Alec's criminal record prior to the arrest added up to 111 convictions, of which 29 were for violent offences, 28 were for property-related crimes, 38 were for breaches and seven were firearms related.
Following a trial, Provincial Court Judge Cassandra Malfair found Alec guilty of seven weapons-related offences and two counts of breaching a release order.
During submissions on sentencing in June, Crown argued for six years less credit for time served. If not for so-called Gladue factors that are applied to Indigenous offenders, seven to eight years would have been appropriate, Crown contended.
Defence counsel argued for time served, given not only the Gladue factors but Alec's ongoing heart trouble for which he has a pacemaker and a cancer diagnosis.
Malfair gave limited credit to those concerns, noting in part that in the three years since the heart ailment was uncovered, Alec was still "physically capable" of committing a series of offences, including assault causing bodily harm.
In all, Malfair sentenced Alec to five years three months and 18 days leaving two years less a day to serve once credit for time served prior to sentencing is taken into account.
In effect, Malfair crafted a sentence that will see Alec serve the remainder of his sentence in a provincial jail and allowed her to impose a further two years probation once his time in custody is up.
Moreover, Malfair was able to impose the no-go condition. The only provisos are that he has express permission if he's passing through Prince George to another destination. Alec hails from Lake Babine Nation adjacent to Burns Lake.
Had Malfair completely endorsed Crown's position on sentencing, Alec would have been sent to a federal prison for roughly a further two years and eight months but would not have been subject to the probation order with the condition to stay out of the city.
Alec had said he planned to relocate to the Lower Mainland and away from "negative peer associates," the court had been told.
