Another young Yorktonite is in provincial lockup following a guilty plea to cocaine trafficking last week.
Provincial Court judge Ross Green accepted a joint Crown-defence submission November 16 and sentenced Christopher Gleason to 12 months in prison.
Gleason’s co-accused, Mark Marchand had already pleaded out September 21 and received 18 months.
The federal Crown, represented by Shane Wagner, told the court Gleason had been a passenger in Marchand’s car when police approached the parked vehicle on the Airport Road in June while investigating a complaint about a domestic dispute.
In submitting the agreed facts, Wagner said Gleason was cooperative with police admitting he had participated in the sale of three grams of cocaine and that it was his cell phone Marchand had used to contact buyers.
The prosecutor argued that while 12 months was on the low end of the scale for coke trafficking, it was a fit sentence given Gleason’s secondary involvement in the affair and his lack of prior criminal record.
Richard Yaholnitsky for the defence argued that his client had only found out about the drugs after he had already entered the car and that he had not received any financial gain.
Yaholnitsky called the sentence a heavy price to pay for an unplanned and peripheral involvement, but agreed it was fair based on the case law.
In accepting the joint submission, Green agreed with the defence.
“It is a heavy price, but it is the price Parliament has put on it,” the judge said.
