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BARRHEAD - A Barrhead man received 105 days in jail, a $500 fine and 12 months of probation after he pleaded guilty to several charges connected to a series of domestic dispute situations early in the new year.
Charles Virgil Graybill pleaded guilty to assault causing bodily harm, three counts of failing to comply with a release order, mischief damage under $5,000 and unlawfully being in a dwelling house at Barrhead Court of Justice on Feb. 27.
Justice Jordan Stuffco handed down the sentence as part of a joint submission by the Crown and defence. As part of the probation sentence, Graybill also has to undergo counselling for substance addiction and will have to submit to a mandatory DNA test. He was also ordered to have no contact with any of the complainants. Due to the 37 days he has spent in custody with enhanced credit, Graybill will have to serve 48 days, although Stuffco suggested that, in all likelihood, he would only have to serve two-thirds of that.
Stuffco also waived the victim impact surcharge.
The Crown also withdrew several charges, including five failure to comply with release order conditions; arson-damage of others' property and unlawfully being in a dwelling house; and mischief damage under $5,000.
Stuffco said Graybill was fortunate to have a lawyer as talented as Jan Ter Hart working on his behalf, who was able to negotiate such a well-crafted plea agreement.
"If this weren't a joint submission, you would get a rocket ride ... You did the wise thing in accepting responsibility," he said.
Facts of the case
Crown prosecutor Anthony Estephan said on Jan. 4, the RCMP received a call from a local medical clinic saying one of their patients had received injuries to her nose from what was "obviously a physical assault".
Police then spoke to the woman, who told them that she received the injuries following an argument with her boyfriend, Graybill, in which he headbutted her.
Police arrested Graybill without incident later that day, and he was released on conditions, the most important being that he was to have no contact with his girlfriend or her estranged husband, who was the apparent topic of the couple's argument.
Eleven days later, on Jan. 15, police responded to a call of an apparent domestic dispute.
When they arrived, Estephan said they spoke to the homeowner, who called in the complaint, telling them he could hear loud noises from the basement suite he was renting.
"They weren't yelling, and he was unsure what was happening but was concerned," he said.
Upon investigation, Estephan said police found Graybill and his girlfriend and, after interviewing them separately, determined that they had been drinking and got into a verbal argument.
Once again, police took Graybill into custody and later released on conditions, the major one again being that he was to have no contact with his girlfriend.
The next evening, on Jan.16, police responded to a report of a vehicle fire at the same residence.
Estephan said that the owner of the vehicle and residence told the RCMP that Graybill and his girlfriend had been arguing earlier in the day and that police could hear the couple still quarrelling through the residence's basement window.
"RCMP knocked on the door and asked Graybill to exit the suite and arrested him for failing to comply with his release order," he said.
Estephan added on Jan. 27, police were called again by the owner of the residence, in which Graybill's girlfriend was staying, saying that he was attempting to break in.
"RCMP observed a Caucasian male with a green backpack bent over a broken window. The man took off, but police caught up, to the man who was identified as Graybill and arrested him for mischief under $5,000," he said.
The next day, late in the evening, Estephan said that police received a call from Graybill's girlfriend's estranged husband, stating the couple were at his home without his permission.
He added that the complaint believes the couple were "under the influence" and just walked into the house as he left it unlocked when he went to work.
Estephan said police arrested Graybill and his girlfriend for unlawfully being in a dwelling house, adding while the couple were in custody being processed, Graybill repeatedly attempted to speak to his girlfriend, despite having several previous release orders that were still in force, to have no contact with her.
Crown's position on sentencing
Estephan called the sentence fitting, saying the jail time is an escalation of what Graybill received from his only other previous conviction in April 2010 of breaking conditions of his probation, in which he received a $350 fine.
"This is a situation where the gravity arising from intimate partner violence is quite serious," he said. "The assault causing bodily harm resulted in injuries requiring stitches. And multiple instances of breaching, which is always very serious, but in this case, evermore so because they were no contact breaches with an intimate partner."
He added Graybill's moral culpability was on the high end but admitted that it was slightly diminished as his girlfriend often played an active role "in facilitating the contact."
Mitigating factors, Estephan said, were Graybill's extremely early guilty pleas, despite what were very triable issues in the Crown's case as he does not know how cooperative some of the witnesses would be, especially Graybill's former girlfriend.
The defence
Ter Hard said his client "gets it", realizing his relationship with his former girlfriend was toxic and is over, adding Graybill, once released, plans to move to Edmonton and resume his career as a cement finisher.
Stuffco said Graybill, who appeared via CCTV from the Edmonton Remand Centre, has a lot to live for, asking him if he had any children.
Graybill responded, saying he had four, ranging in age from 17 to two and a half.
"That is fantastic," Suffco said, adding addiction is an illness that requires constant vigilance.
"It is like cancer; you have to undertake treatment for it, and sometimes you have to go through more than one bout to get it under control. I can tell you are a good person and that when you are clean and sober, you are nothing like what I heard about you today. You have to have an accountability partner that you can call when you are tempted to drink, score some dope, whatever it is. Someone to reach out to when you are looking at that cliff to help you put the brakes on."
