Drug case ends with 1 convicted and 1 freed
The Okanagan Weekend
One man has been convicted and one acquitted in the 2014 drug bust characterized as one that would put a big dent in Kelowna’s drug trade.
At Kelowna Law Courts Friday, Shelden Harris, 33, was found guilty of five counts of possession for the purpose of trafficking.
Much weight was put on the fact that Harris was renting the house and owned the car where most of the drugs were found.
However, his co-accused, Tyson Still, was acquitted after the judge found reasonable doubt that Still had controlling access to the home and car because he didn’t live there.
The verdicts were handed down in courtroom No. 4, which doesn’t have prisoner docks or separate seating for the accused.
As such, Harris and Still sat in chairs in the public gallery.
Harris sat on one side of the room, Still, the other, and they didn’t look at each other.
As soon as Judge Victoria Gray announced Still’s acquittal and told him he was free to go, he bolted.
He was wearing a short-sleeved white shirt that showed off his arm tattoos.
Harris wore a blue pin-striped suit and couldn’t leave until the judge read out conditions of his release until he appears in court again in late July or early August for sentencing.
Harris was deemed to be a low risk of fleeing since he’s stuck around for the past twoand-a-half years while this case has played out.
As such, he was free to leave with a promise to show up for sentencing, pay $1,000 bail, report to a bail supervisor, not leave B.C. and not have any firearms.
The judge saw no reason to invoke the 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. curfew the Crown suggested.
Harris now lives in Vancouver and works for his father’s construction company.
However, in October 2014, at the time of his crimes, he was living at 1495 Crawford Rd. and had a grey Audi A8 in the garage.
On Friday, the judge summarized the three-day trial, which got underway after Harris’ and Still’s applications were denied to have a police search warrant quashed and charges stayed because the case took so long to come to court.
Following up on tips of illegal drug activity at the Crawford Road house, police started to watch it.
On Oct. 9, 2014 officer surveillance saw Harris and Still in the kitchen working away on what looked liked packaging drugs in little baggies.
Police obtained a search warrant and combed through the house while neither Harris nor Still were there.
They also raided a house of a known associate of Harris on Mills Road in Rutland.
In total, 1.5 kilograms of cocaine, more than a kilo of methamphetamine, 403 grams of hashish, 224 grams of heroin, 65 grams of ecstasy, $18,500 in cash, 500 rounds of ammunition, a money counter, digital scales, industrial press, bear spray and security surveillance equipment were found. No guns were found. The largest cache of drugs was found in the trunk of Harris’ Audi in several boxes, a backpack and duffle bag.
Harris was arrested that day in October 2014, but not charged until 28 months later.