Opioid trafficking nets two years for 20-year-old Hatter

A young Medicine Hat man was sentenced to two years in jail for oxycodine trafficking and a string of break and enters in rural areas in the region.

Kurtis Baumgardt, 20, pled guilty to numerous charges as part of a joint submission by both the Crown and defence counsel Thursday at the Medicine Hat Courthouse.

Baumgardt was arrested alongside Cole Rath on a rural road south of Medicine Hat on Nov. 23, 2014 by Redcliff RCMP which were investigating a suspicious vehicle in response to a rash of B&Es of storage sheds and similar buildings in the rural areas.

RCMP tied physical evidence — truck tire tracks and Baumgardt’s shoe patterns — to various B&E sites.

Upon arrest, Baumgardt admitted to police his involvement with 13 B&Es over several months, where items like tools, generators, chainsaws, TVs, metal and more were taken.

“There’s very little doubt in my mind who was running this operation,” said Crown prosecutor Ryan Anstey, saying Baumgardt had a reduced role in the crimes. It was Rath who scouted out the locations beforehand, not Baumgardt, said Anstey, while Rath received a higher percentage of what was taken. Rath also faces other B&E charges to which Baumgardt is not associated with. Rath pled guilty to multiple counts of B&Es earlier this month, with his sentencing set for Jan. 17.

Drug trafficking charges were laid against Baumgardt, who was arrested on Aug. 18, including a transaction of three 20 mg oxycodine pills worth $60. Police also found on Baumgardt seven 20 mg oxycodine pills worth $140, and 11 80mg pills worth $450.

Baumgardt has an addiction to meth, said defence counsel Mansoor Khan — he turned to it especially to deal with his father’s recent diagnoses with cancer, and in turn to trafficking to finance his addiction.

Since being in custody, he has attended AA meetings and plans to continue seeking help in custody, said Khan,

Alongside the jail sentence, Baumgardt was ordered to pay restitution to a total of $29,658.15 — half of the total costs from the B&Es — and with Rath expected to pay the other half once sentenced.