After spending 22 months in remand, Lance Regan will spend the next seven years behind bars.
The 23-year-old has been in jail since Dec. 2008 – four months of which was while serving time for another crime.
Today his sentence revolved around a brutal attack from Nov. 3 of that year.
Judge R.D. Maher did not read out what Regan pleaded guilty to, but called them “serious criminal offenses.”
Last month his plea was to eight charges— they included aggravated assault, robbery and unlawful confinement.
The member of the “Terror Squad” invaded two houses in Manville Bay. Along with others, he threatened and assaulted the occupants. One was injured to the point of unconsciousness and brain damage resulting in memory loss.
The group demanded drugs and money, and finally forced one of the occupants to take them to another residence to get drugs.
Both Crown prosecutor, Jennifer Claxton-Viczko, and defence lawyer, Nicholas Stooshinoff, submitted a joint submission of 10 years. Where they disagreed, was the amount of time served Regan should get. Claxton-Viczko asked for time and a half, while Stooshinoof requested double time served.
Maher called the 10-year sentence appropriate, but found deciding on the amount of time served to be the issue.
He explained Regan spent his time in remand in three different locations. He started in the Prince Albert Provincial Correctional Centre, then moved to the Saskatchewan Penitentiary and was finally placed in the Edmonton Penitentiary.
He said each transfer was because the institution was “unable to manage him.”
He also spent four days in segregation.
“He was not a model inmate while on remand,” Maher said, adding the segregation “a result of the accused’s attitude and behaviour.”
Maher gave him 1.6 time served – it means 36 months credit and another 84 months to go.
Regan will also be required to submit a DNA sample and be prohibited from ever having a firearm.
Claxton-Viczko was satisfied with the sentence. She said the “lengthy jail time was warranted.”
Stooshinoff was disappointed, while the agreed with the 10-year sentence – Regan’s co-accused received the same amount of time- he though the amount of time served was “unfair.”
He said, in his view, the only time two for one remand, for issues before Feb. 2010, should be avoided is when the accused tried to delay the trial. It was not the case in this instance.
“The grounds he was less than a model prisoner while on remand… he already would be punished for this,” he said referring to the time in segregation.
“We feel it was simply unfair in the circumstance.”
klavoie@panow.com
