One of the two men involved in the theft of mail in the Westlock area has been sentenced to 10 months in jail.
Tyler Morgan Peters, 29, appeared in Westlock Provincial Court on April 2 to face 80 charges that stem from an incident on Oct. 7, 2013 in Westlock.
Peters will only spend four months behind bars after being given credit for six months of time already served.
He has also been handed a 10-year firearms ban, and been ordered to provide RCMP with a DNA sample.
During Peters’ proceedings, Crown prosecutor Jeff Morrison amended several of the charges, effectively reducing the number of charges to be addressed to nine.
One charge was amended to have Peters charged with possession of several cheques with a total value of more than $5,000.
Another charge became possession of credit cards valued at no more than $5,000.
A third became possession of identification documents belonging to five different people, at a value of no more than $5,000.
A fourth charge was changed to possession of mail stolen from various locations, valued at no more than $5,000.
The final amended charge was possession of vehicle documents belonging to two different people.
Peters pleaded guilty to the five amended charges.
In addition, he pleaded guilty to possession of a stolen vehicle, two counts of breaching a recognizance and one count of possessing an unlicensed firearm.
Morrison told the court the charges originated on Oct. 7, 2013 when Westlock RCMP saw a truck and trailer driving through alleyways in Westlock.
Upon pulling over the truck and running the licence plate, officers determined the truck was stolen.
While searching the truck, RCMP found a firearm, multiple tools, car keys and several pieces of mail inside the vehicle and trailer.
Peters had been driving the truck and was found to be bound by multiple release conditions, including a curfew, Morrison said.
Taking into consideration a joint submission from Morrison and defence lawyer Bruce Lennon, Judge D.G. Rae handed down a 10-month global sentence on all nine charges.
Peters was given six months for the stolen vehicle charge.
For the five other possession charges, Rae handed down three months in jail for each charge to be served concurrently to each other, but consecutive to the six months.
On each of the breached recognizances, Rae handed down one month in jail to be served concurrent to each other, but consecutive to the possession charges.
Following his guilty plea, Peters told the court he was sorry for what happened.
“I wish I could turn back time so this never happened,” he said.
