DEALER GETS 3 YEARS
Christopher David Morrison receives 3 year sentence after loaded guns, drugs found in Princeton home
Mounties seemed to hit the jackpot when they arrested a Princeton drug dealer last year, but a judge on Tuesday cast doubt on whether the bust would have held up in court.
Despite having an apparent defence available, Christopher David Morrison, 31, pleaded guilty to two firearms offences and possessing both methamphetamine and heroin for the purpose of trafficking on what was to be his first day of trial in B.C. Supreme Court. He was sentenced to three years in prison, minus enhanced credit of 442 days time served.
Morrison was arrested March 2 outside a home on Angela Avenue in Princeton by Mounties who had him under surveillance pending his arrest on an unrelated charge of uttering threats.
Crown counsel Ginger Holmes told the court Morrison was spotted making a “hand-to-hand drug transaction” outside the home, prompting police to swoop in.
A woman caught running from the house told officers she believed drugs were being sold there, but that no one else was inside, according to Holmes.
Mounties nonetheless suspected Morrison’s co-accused on the threats file may have been hiding in the residence and also wanted to preserve evidence of drug trafficking, Holmes continued, so officers entered the home without a warrant.
Inside, they found two shotguns and a revolver — all loaded with the safeties off — on a couch in the living room, plus suspected drugs in a kitchen drawer.
Armed with a search warrant later that day, officers seized the weapons, plus 80 grams of cocaine, four grams of heroin, 13 grams of meth, $6,000 cash, scales, scoresheets, ammunition and bear spray.
Holmes, who stayed 12 counts against Morrison in exchange for his pleas, suggested the three-year jail term, citing as aggravating factors the presence of a daycare next door to the residence and the loaded guns.
Defence counsel Jeremy Jensen told the court his client spent most of his life in the Lower Mainland, but moved to Princeton at the behest of a friend following the break-up of a relationship.
“He left behind his support group, that being his family and friends, and unfortunately Mr. Morrison fell into the wrong crowd,” said Jensen.
“Mr. Morrison made some incredibly stupid — to say the least — decisions and found himself getting involved in that criminal activity at a very high level.”
Jensen agreed to the Crown’s suggestion of a three-year term, as did Justice Peter Rogers.
“I do recognize that, based on the recitation of facts, that the Crown was facing a significant legal challenge with respect to (police) entry into the house at the time of the arrest,” said Rogers.
While the defence may not have been successful challenging the lawfulness of the search at trial, “it was a live issue,” Rogers continued, “and were that not the case, I rather suspect the joint submission would have been for a rather longer time (in jail) than we’re talking about here.”