Wayne Wheaton will spend 480 days in jail for the role he played in the burglary of a rural residence.
Wheaton appeared in the Bonnyville Provincial Courthouse on Tuesday, March 19, and pled guilty to possession of stolen property obtained by crime, break and enter not a dwelling, possession of a weapon, and possession of methamphetamine.
He was sentenced to 480 days in jail in relation to the Dec. 9, 2018 incident where a resident reported to police their home had been burglarized.
When police arrived at the residence, they noted the door had been kicked in and there were footprints throughout the property leading to various outbuildings.
Several items such as Christmas presents, a television, and computer, among other things, were missing.
As police searched the property, they located a truck stuck in the snow. From what they could tell, an ATV, which was still attached by tow straps, had attempted to pull the truck free, but failed.
Police received a separate report of two suspicious people hiding in bushes not far from the property.
Footprints leading into the bushes, where Wheaton and co-accused Junelle A. Desjarlais were hiding, matched those that were found at the residence.
Desjarlais had keys to the truck in her pocket, while Wheaton had a set of keys to the residence they had just burglarized and some methamphetamine in his.
At the time of his arrest, Wheaton lied to police about his identity.
According to acting duty counsel Stephanie Oleksyn, Wheaton was highly intoxicated at the time of the incident, and suffers from a brain injury that causes him to forget things.
Although he didn't remember the offence completely, he agreed with St. Paul chief Crown prosecutor Jordan Kerr's description of events.
From what police could tell, Kerr said, the pair had spent upwards of two hours on the property scouring for whatever they could steal.
If it weren't for the joint submission of 16 months, Honourable Judge Clifton Purvis noted he would have sentenced Wheaton to three or four years behind bars.
He said, "(Break and enter's) a crime of particular precedence... It's really because of the joint submission I'll sentence you to only 16 months."
As of his appearance in court, Wheaton had spent 150 pre-trial days in custody. He has 330 left to serve.
Wheaton was also sentenced to provide a sample of his DNA for the national databank.
Co-accused Desjarlais has yet to speak to her charges, and will appear in the Bonnyville Provincial Courthouse April 2.
