BOYLE – A man received a month-long jail stay after he was found working on a stolen truck with the keys in his pocket.
In Boyle Court of Justice July 11, Ty Murray Cardinal pleaded guilty to possession of stolen property over $5,000.
As part of his plea, which was a joint submission between Crown prosecutor Taylor Noble and defence lawyer Edward Apolonio Jr., an additional charge of possession of stolen property over $5,000 was withdrawn, as were charges of obstructing a peace officer and disobeying a provincial court order.
Justice Karl Wilberg accepted the joint submission, agreeing with Noble’s argument that, despite a dated criminal record — Cardinal had two prior convictions — similar crimes often warrant a short sentence.
“I agree that your record is mostly dated now, so I am going to go along with the Crown’s suggestion,” said the justice, who was speaking to Cardinal as he stood in the prisoner’s box. “There will be a 30-day sentence, but because you’ve been in custody for 32 actual days, I’ll take 20 of those, round them up to 30, and you’ll be in a time served situation.”
When given the opportunity to say anything prior to sentencing, Cardinal stated, “I would just like to apologize for what happened.”
The facts
Noble told court that at approximately 3:13 a.m. on Oct. 27, 2022, Boyle RCMP received a call about two suspicious vehicles at the Caslan store. When police arrived, they located a 2013 Ford F-150 and a 2018 Ram 1500.
The RCMP observed two men working under the Ford. According to Noble, Cardinal gave five different names to the officers, all of which were false. The police ran checks on the Ford, finding that it was registered to a third party. When they contacted the owner, he advised them that the vehicle had been stolen.
When the police conducted similar checks on the Ram, they found that it had also been stolen, and they found the keys in Cardinal’s pocket.
