A Dome Creek man was sentenced to 30 months in prison Tuesday after he was twice found growing marijuana - the second time after he invited police into his home when they were serving a summons for the first offence.
Kohl Anthony Timms, 26, was sentenced to consecutive terms of 14 and 16 months in Prince George provincial court after pleading guilty to two counts of possession for the purpose of trafficking.
Timms and his mother were out on the home's porch when police showed up on Aug. 3, 2010 to serve the summons. When a swarm of mosquitoes also showed up, Timms decided they should go inside to deal with the matter.
That was when police noted a strong odour, arrested Timms and obtained a search warrant. About 1.5 kilograms of fresh cut marijuana was found in a room upstairs and 804 plants were found in various rooms in the basement.
Slightly more than a week before, police had seized 1,335 plants Timms had been growing in another home in the small community 156 kilometres east of Prince George
Both operations were described as relatively unsophisticated and about half the plants in the first grow op were in such poor condition it was doubtful they would have produced a bud, the court was told, while the second operation was of slightly higher quality.
Timms has a previous conviction for growing marijuana - in 2009 he was sentenced to nine months house arrest in Salmon Arm.
The sentence on the two most recent offences was reached through a joint submission from the Crown prosecutor and defence counsel. In agreeing with the submission, Judge Darrell O'Byrne found both Timms' previous conviction and the fact he continued to grow marijuana after the first offence in Dome Creek to be aggravating factors.
The circumstances were something new for defence lawyer Brian Gilson.
"In all of my years of being a counsel, I've never seen somebody invite the police into a residence knowing it was a grow operation," Gilson said.
O'Byrne did agree with Gilson's request that he ask the Corrections Canada to place Timms in a prison where there is trades skills training. Timms has been working as an insulator
