Valmore Howard will spend the next 15 months in prison after pleading guilty last week to six counts of theft, three counts of mischief and one count each of break and enter and breach of an undertaking.
The 25-year-old Yorkton man was already in jail when the charges, related to a string of break and enters on the weekend of May 25, were laid on May 28. The day before, May 27, Howard was in court on an unrelated charge for stealing a laptop from Holly's Night Club. He had pleaded guilty and received 90 days.
In that case, the defence successfully argued, and the Crown consented, that although Howard had six prior theft convictions, the Court should be lenient because the young man had been clean for four years and had only returned to his old ways after relapsing with alcohol when he lost his girlfriend in March.
The judge accepted the joint submission and a recommendation that Howard should serve the latter part of the three-month sentence in the provincial Impaired Driver Treatment Program.
The defendant would not be so lucky this time around. Given that he was on a conditional release for the laptop theft when the weekend-long crime spree occurred, combined with his prior criminal record, the Crown elected to proceed by indictment on 19 counts related to 28 complaints the RCMP received May 25 and May 26.
Appearing by video from Regina Correctional Centre June 25, Howard pleaded guilty to 11 of the 19 charges.
He will serve his 15-month sentence concurrently with the previous 90 days.
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