Lengthy prison term sought for store robber

With a criminal record dating back 36 years and several previous robberies to his name, a 53-year-old man could be looking at as long as a decade in prison if the Crown gets its way.

Ten years ago, Kevin Darrell Wolbaum was handed a sevenyear prison term, the result of a joint recommendation by Crown and defence counsel following the man’s guilty pleas to three Regina business robberies.

Wolbaum didn’t make any such admissions in relation to an Aug. 11, 2015, robbery of a local convenience store, which Crown prosecutor Leona Andrews described as “eerily similar” to one of the man’s past offences.

“Yeah, I committed those three robberies,” a tearful Wolbaum told Queen’s Bench Justice Brian Barrington-Foote on Thursday of his 2007 offences. “This one here, your honour, I did not.”

Barrington-Foote, who earlier decided the matter after trial, disagreed. And after hearing lengthy submissions on Thursday, the judge has to decide what sentence to impose against the longtime offender.

Wolbaum had some thoughts on that, too, having come prepared with a newspaper article about a man recently sentenced to 6½ years for a violent home invasion in which the victim was beaten in front of his wife and child. Wolbaum questioned why he deserved a higher sentence, but observed it’s in the judge’s hands.

“It’s up to you what you do with me,” he said. “I just have to take it and walk away.”

Barrington-Foote is expected to pass sentence on Dec. 14, allowing him some time to consider two differing proposals from Andrews and defence lawyer George Combe.

While Andrews asked the court to impose a sentence of between eight and 10 years, Combe argued the range for business robberies in Saskatchewan is five to seven years, and he requested five in this case.

In asking for the lower sentence, Combe spoke to his client’s challenges in life, many of which started in 2000 when, while the thentruck driver was washing windows on his semi, he had a fall. Wolbaum now has two rods in his back and has suffered since with pain management issues. Wolbaum told the court he used marijuana before the fall, but got into hard drugs after.

That drug problem and Wolbaum’s inability — or unwillingness, in Andrews’ view — to deal with it has been at the heart of much of his offending.

Barrington-Foote determined the robbery involved the masked man entering a gas station convenience store while armed with a knife. Court heard the lone clerk was so traumatized by the experience he quit his job, moved out of the province and still struggles with fear.

A second man was charged in the incident but was later acquitted.

Andrews pointed to Wolbaum’s record and his problematic history inside correctional facilities in asking for a longer sentence, adding his age means “he no longer has the benefit of youthful mistakes.”

Combe also referenced his client’s age, noting Wolbaum is now “basically a great-grandfather” among inmates.

“He has now come to understand that he needs to break (the) cycle,” he said.