WESTLOCK - The third and final person implicated in the $10,000 Westlock Butcher Shop heist, will remain behind bars until 2023 after pleading guilty to a pair of “high value” break-ins over the past year.
Appearing in Westlock Provincial Court Nov. 9 via CCTV from the Edmonton Remand Centre, David Allan Lee, 24, pleaded guilty to break and enter-not a dwelling house, shopbreaking with intent, shoplifting under $5,000, use or traffic in stolen credit cards, obstructing a peace officer and failing to comply with conditions of an undertaking. Fifteen additional charges including five counts of possession of stolen property, four additional charges of use or traffic in stolen credit cards and single charges of theft over $5,000 and mischief under $5,000 were withdrawn by Crown prosecutor Brett Grierson.
Judge Joanne Heudes sided with Grierson on sentencing and agreed to send Lee to jail for 195 days and fined him $2,000, but gave him until June 30, 2023, to pay and waived the victim-fine surcharge. In jail for 93 days already credited at one to 1.5 for a total of 140, Lee has 55 days left to serve — when he gets out he’ll also have to submit a sample of his DNA to the RCMP.
“Your record doesn’t concern me as much as the pattern that is happening here. Most of the crimes seem to be related to basic necessities … I see groceries and gas,” said Judge Heudes. “I wish you well in your treatment when you come out of custody.”
Defence lawyer Christopher Chelala, who had asked for a 170-day sentence, said his client has basically been homeless since the age of 15 which “forced him to grow up faster than most.” Although he’s previously struggled with drug and alcohol addiction, Chelala said Lee has been sober for the last six months and will live with his mother in Clyde upon his release.
The crimes
Grierson told court that on Nov. 25, 2021, RCMP were alerted by Westlock Terminals staff that more than $5,000 worth of copper wire had been stolen from the site. Police reviewed surveillance footage and identified Tyler Stump, who in turn fingered Lee in the break-in.
Then on May 4, 2022, RCMP received a call from the Independent grocery store that a theft was in progress. Grierson told court that Lee “had run out” with a couple of bags of groceries valued at $284.33 and police caught up with him near the UFA. Confronted by police, Lee ditched the groceries and fled on foot but was caught a short time later.
Then on May 16, 2022, a woman reported to police that her bank card had been stolen and there were five unauthorized transactions that totaled $308.49. Police went to the three businesses and reviewed the surveillance footage and saw Lee using her card. At the time he was also under a 10 p.m. curfew and footage showed him at the businesses after that hour.
Finally, Grierson told court that Lee was involved in the June 23, 2022, break and enter at the Westlock Butcher Shop where about $10,000 worth of product was stolen. Reviewing video surveillance of the break-in, RCMP identified Travis Jean, 34, and obtained a search warrant for his residence where they found $6,000 worth of the remaining products from the heist — Grierson noted that Jean told police Lee was involved in the heist.
At Jean’s sentencing Oct. 5, where he received a five-month jail sentence, 18 months of probation and ordered to pay over $2,100 in restitution to the victims of two of his crimes, he only admitted to possessing items from the break-in, not participating in it.
In court Aug. 9, another co-accused from the break-in, Angela Melissa Wells, 44, pleaded guilty to possession of stolen property over $5,000 and received a conditional discharge from Judge Clifton Purvis, who rejected a joint-sentence submission for a $2,500 fine and declined to impose a victim-fine surcharge. In addition to 25 hours of community service work, plus a 12-month probation order that includes a host of conditions, Wells is barred from coming within 100 metres of the butcher shop and contacting Jean, who was her former common-law partner.
