A Prince George man was released on bail Wednesday to attend an addictions treatment program after pleading guilty to charges related to the theft of a pickup truck and copper wire from a local business.
How he does while taking the program will play a significant role in deciding the length of sentence he will eventually receive, Earl Wade Johnson, 49, was told during a disposition hearing in provincial court.
Johnson was one of three men arrested Aug. 31, three days after the truck, as well as a flat deck trailer and several spools of insulated copper wire worth nearly $5,000, went missing from the yard of a 2000-block Ogilvie Street business.
An off-duty RCMP officer spotted the pickup abandoned off Kimball Road near the Bon Voyage Plaza. Police subsequently set up a surveillance and, when the suspects showed up to retrieve the truck, Mounties followed them to a property on Sykes Road off Highway 16 near the west edge of Prince George.
The three were arrested at the scene and the stolen items were recovered.
On Wednesday, Johnson pleaded guilty to one count each of possession of stolen property under $5,000 and possession of property for the purpose of trafficking. He also pleaded guilty to breach of probation.
In November 2014, he was sentenced to a further six months in jail followed by two years probation for attempting to steal a gun safe holding four rifles from a Prince George hotel room the year before.
At the time of sentencing on that matter, the court heard Johnson had been a Prince George resident for 25 years and worked as a boilermaker, pipefitter and welder. He once held a six-figure income, but has been plagued by addiction to drugs, including crystal methamphetamine. His criminal record shows chunks of offences offset by periods of good behaviour.
Johnson's bail conditions include no contact with the two others arrested - Robert Douglas Leslie, 40, and Eric Wayde Thor Johnson, 33.
In November, Leslie was sentenced to a day in jail and assessed $200 in victim surcharges for two counts of breach of an undertaking or recognizance. Eric Johnson's matter remains before the court.
-- with files from Samantha Wright-Allen
