Youth discarded loaded handgun as he fled police

17-year-old pleads guilty to armed robbery at Conestoga Mall Fido store

A Kitchener youth got rid of a loaded 9-mm handgun last May while fleeing from police after robbing the Fido phone store at Conestoga Mall in Waterloo.

Seven months later, while out on bail on the robbery charge, he was caught behind the wheel of a stolen car linked to what police called a botched robbery at a Kitchener pharmacy.

“After this, your honour, I promise I’m done with the criminal lifestyle,” the 17-year-old told Justice Wayne Rabley this week in Kitchener court. “I’m on the right path now and I just want to do better.” The judge was skeptical. “This kind of activity has to stop,” Rabley told him. “And I don’t have a lot of optimism, to be honest with you, that you’re going to make the change. It’s easy to say, ‘I’m going to make a change.’ Can you imagine how many times a day I hear that?”

On May 25 at 7:55 p.m., three males — one of them the teen in court this week — entered the Fido store. One brandished a black handgun.

The Crown couldn’t prove who held the gun.

Two employees were ordered into the back, court was told. One male held them at gunpoint while the others stole $45,000 worth of phones. They fled in a stolen Honda Accord.

The next day, police spotted two males in the Accord and stopped it. The teen in court ran off, but was caught. While running, he threw away a loaded handgun that matched the description of the one used in the robbery.

Phones stolen from the Fido store were found in the Accord.

The youth was released on bail. Seven months later, on Dec. 14, three people were in a stolen Toyota Yaris outside Activa Pharmacy on Activa Avenue in Kitchener, court was told. Two males wearing dark clothes, surgical gloves and masks got out of the car, police said at the time.

“The pharmacist believed they were about to be robbed,” said Crown prosecutor Simon McNaughton.

“They locked the pharmacy and called the police. It was not in fact robbed. The vehicle fled.”

Twenty-five minutes after the botched robbery, the teen in court was arrested after police saw him driving the Yaris on Westmount Road in Kitchener.

The youth, who has no prior record, pleaded guilty to robbery with a firearm at the Fido store, possession of stolen goods (the Yaris) and breaching bail conditions twice.

“He appears to be heading down the path toward further criminality. And that is concerning and that I think reflects badly on his potential for rehabilitation,” McNaughton said.

He asked for a sentence of secure custody in a youth jail. Defence lawyer Sean Biesbroek sought open custody in a facility with fewer restrictions.

The teen spent the equivalent of three months in presentence custody. Rabley handed him a ninemonth sentence — six months of open custody and three months of community supervision.

“That is a huge break, because this does deserve secure custody,” Rabley told the teen. “If you go in there, my concern is you’re going to learn just how to be a bad guy.”

The youth will be on probation for two years and can’t possess weapons for 10 years. He can’t go to Conestoga Mall. He must take counselling and provide a DNA sample for the national databank.

The judge warned him if he doesn’t change his ways, his future looks grim.

“Do you know what it’s like in a penitentiary?” Rabley said. “What you’ve experienced (in youth custody) is nothing compared to a penitentiary.

“And in a year from now, when you’re 18, you commit the very same offence, it’s probably four years in penitentiary, where you better dot your i’s and cross your t’s because you look at somebody the wrong way, they’ve got a shiv and you’re in the shower and then bad things happen. It’s not going to go well.”

Rabley noted the teen has excelled in some high school courses.

“It tells me you’ve got some brains,” he said.

The judge thanked the teen’s mother for coming to court.

“Be tough on him,” Rabley told her.

“He’s got some potential. He is not … a throwaway, where we just don’t care about him anymore. But we’re losing him. We’re only going to keep him if you keep him on a course, so don’t let him get away with anything. Keep working on him.”