Man released from custody to house arrest and pending further court dates

Kade Phillips appeared in Taber court via CCTV from Lethbridge Correctional Centre on Jan. 21 and pleaded guilty to violating a curfew and a no-contact order imposed by the court in October. The violations occurred separately in December and early January. Phillips is one of four co-accused charged in an Oct. 14, 2024 Taber drug and weapons bust.

 At that time, police executed a drug and weapons bust in the 5900 block of 64 Avenue and found a significant stash of contraband. Taber police and the RCMP entered a residence at 7:10 a.m. that day and seized over 230 grams of meth, 19 grams of powder cocaine, 10 grams of crack cocaine, drug paraphernalia, and over $2,000 in cash. The total street value of the items was over $15,000. The police also located and seized a flashlight stun gun and a loaded prohibited shotgun.

 Phillips has been in custody since the Jan. 5 curfew violation. Federal Crown Prosecutor David Nguyen proposed a time-served agreement in exchange for the guilty pleas. The Hon. Justice LeGrandeur accepted the terms.

 Defence counsellor Greg White asked the judge to waive the victim fine surcharge. White said that after reviewing the disclosure on the other charges against Phillips, he expects that the man’s release will be short-lived before an imminent return to jail.

 Prosecutor Nguyen expressed his concerns regarding Phillips’ reporting conditions while on release due to the man’s previous failures to comply. However, Nguyen misspoke and said, “I would insist on in-person (reporting) just due to the nature of the previous breaches, sir.”

 Justice LeGrandeur reprimanded the lawyer’s language in no uncertain terms. “I don’t like the use of the word insist. You submit. You advocate for. You do not insist anything. You do not have power or control over that, do you understand?”

“My apologies, sir…I didn’t mean at all,” Nguyen said, but the judge cut him off.

“Yeah, I know you didn’t, but we’re in an open courtroom,” LeGrandeur said, his voice rising. “When people in a Crown’s position are telling the court that they insist that the court do something, it looks like you have control over what I do or don’t do. So please, don’t do it again.”

 With that, the judge laid out numerous conditions that Phillips will be bound by once back in the community.

Repeat offender handed jail time
for petty crime

 On Jan. 21 in Taber court, Matthew Unser pleaded guilty to two counts of shoplifting and one count of mischief under $5,000. Unser appeared in Taber court via CCTV from Lethbridge Correctional Centre while his lawyer Greg White resolved the matters in the courtroom.

 The Crown prosecutor told the court that on Oct. 8, 2024, Unser was caught on video taking almost $70 worth of items from Co-Op. A few weeks later on Nov. 6, Taber police responded to a theft complaint from Fas Gas in Taber. CCTV captured a man later identified as Unser asking the store clerk for cigarettes. When the clerk turned his back, Unser was seen taking two lighters valued at $30 and leaving without purchasing anything.

 Then on Nov. 22 at Luigi’s Restaurant, police received a complaint that a woman’s purse had been stolen from her vehicle after the window was smashed with a rock. The woman followed Unser in her vehicle and when police arrived there was no ensuing altercation. The woman recovered her purse.

 Prosecutor Joanna Lehrer called Unser’s criminal record “fairly prolific” and sought ten days in jail for each shoplifting conviction and 45 days for the vehicle mischief and purse theft. Unser’s lawyer agreed to the proposal without argument and Justice LeGrandeur also concurred.

 The judge reminded the court that in spite of Unser’s history of petty and more serious crimes, the punishment for petty crime has to fit and not become increasingly severe with repetition. “It doesn’t matter how many times people commit them; the sentence must fit the crime and you just can’t keep jumping it up,” LeGrandeur said.

  The judge additionally ordered that Unser pay the mischief victim $325 in restitution for damages to her vehicle.