Dakota Bird was sentenced at Prince Albert Provincial Court. (File photo/paNOW Staff)

By Nigel Maxwell

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A woman who was found driving a stolen car, and who had admitted to police she took it after the previous stolen vehicle she had been driving was towed, is facing a six-month jail sentence.

Dakota Bird, 24, appeared by video when her matters were discussed Friday morning at Prince Albert Provincial Court.

Guilty pleas were entered to a number of charges including flight from police, resisting arrest, and possession of a stolen vehicle.

Bird’s first offence occurred last December in Île-à-la-Crosse. She was among the passengers in a vehicle that had fled from police, and after exiting the vehicle, she ignored repeated requests by police to stop and kept walking.

On the afternoon of February 27, police attended to a residence at Ahtahkakoop Cree Nation and found a stolen vehicle parked in the driveway. The vehicle was towed away.

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A few hours later, Bird was caught driving a separate stolen vehicle and after passing police twice on the road, had parked and then run inside a local residence to avoid arrest. She was soon after found in the bathroom, attempting to hide under a pile of clothes.

She later admitted to police she had made a trade with someone because the vehicle she had been driving was towed away.

Bird’s lawyer Kathy Hodgson-Smith explained Bird had been struggling for the past three years with a meth addiction.

Following her release from custody, she will be on probation for a period of 12 months which includes a condition that for the first four months, she stay away from Ahtahkakoop Cree Nation.

While noting defence was doing its best to respect the wishes of the community, Hodgson-Smith also explained Bird had expressed a desire to get support for her drug addiction and the treatment centre in her home community represented the best option.

Judge Healey said he was troubled by the facts of the case and reminded Bird that meth has a negative impact on people’s lives and could potentially kill her. He then encouraged her to look around at the small room she was in.

“Is that where you want to spend your future,” he asked. “You put yourself there.”

On the video screen, Bird was observed nodding her head in agreement and crying.

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nigel.maxwell@pattiosonmesia.com

On X: @nigelmaxwell