A man who bear-sprayed a local ambulance crew will be spending an eight-year sentence behind bars at a federal correctional facility.
Greg Cote, 21, of Saskatoon, received an eight-year sentence after pleading guilty to a large number of charges in Watrous Provincial Court on August 13.
The charges all relate to incidents that occurred on or around December 17, 2011, including the assault of an ambulance crew from Humboldt in Meacham.
According to Melodi Kujawa, a Crown Prosecutor from Saskatoon, Cote and a co-accused - a youth who cannot be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, stole a car in Saskatoon and picked up two girls in that stolen vehicle. They drove around for a while before abandoning the car in Allan, where they stole another vehicle.
The foursome got that vehicle stuck in the snow, so they stole a truck, which they then rolled into a ditch.
The two girls were injured in the rollover. They got out of the truck and walked into Meacham, where they sought help at one of the homes there. The homeowner called for medical assistance, and a crew responded out of Humboldt. A neighbour also came over to help, Kujawa reported.
While the two paramedics were treating the girls, Cote and his co-accused broke into the house, and bear-sprayed the crew, the homeowner and the neighbour, and made off with the girls in a stolen vehicle.
After a high speed pursuit with police, Cote was arrested and charged with not only breaking and entering a residence, and assault with a weapon (bear spray), dangerous driving and vehicle thefts, he faced charges of armed robbery from another incident in Saskatoon in December 2011, as well as carrying an imitation weapon.
He was given a global sentence of eight years on all of these charges, Kujawa noted, which means he will be serving that time in a federal prison.
Cote's co-accused has also been charged in relation to the bear-spraying incident, but is currently dealing with armed robbery charges in Alberta, Kujawa noted.
