A 24-year-old Barrie man who had struggled with a drug addiction has been sentenced to eight months in jail after pleading guilty to stealing money from the Circle K store on Dunlop Street East and threatening the clerk in March.
“You have managed, for a significant amount of time, to fight some of your challenges,” Justice Cecile Applegate, of the Ontario Court of Justice, said during sentencing Wednesday. “You’re going to have to figure out how to get back to that.”
The court heard through a video conference hearing that Mark Fenech walked into the downtown convenience store on March 19 at 10:40 p.m. wearing black gloves and a mask demanding money.
He left with cash and cigarettes. One of the packs hid a GPS tracker, but it wasn’t turned on.
Police used a tracking dog, which led them to the suspect at his home. During a search, they found the cigarettes with the tracker.
Court heard Fenech has had a problem with heroin and fentanyl since the age of about 14 — about the time his father died of cancer — as well as methamphetamines and cocaine.
He was set to go into a Niagara Falls rehabilitation centre, but those plans were scuttled by the development of the COVID-19 crisis. He was also on methadone, which is used for opioid maintenance therapy for those with opioid addictions.
He was already on a probation order for other crimes when he was arrested for the Circle K robbery.
The Crown and defence lawyers, who submitted a joint admitted statement of facts, both said that the guilty plea ultimately saved the court a great deal of time because there were several issues that would have been contested at trial.
When asked if he was interested in addressing the court, Fenech said he regretted what he did and looked forward to the future and his recovery.
“Hopefully this will. I know this will never happen again,” he said.
Fenech has spent the past two months at the Central North Correctional Centre in Penetanguishene waiting for his day in court.
His eight-month sentence is in addition to that time served.
He was already prohibited from having a weapon for 10 years, that’s been boosted to a lifetime prohibition.
