‘Career criminal’ gets seven years for robbery

In sentencing a 53-year-old man to prison for his latest robbery, a Regina judge noted the man was a “career criminal” who has failed to deal adequately with his longstanding addictions issues.

Even so, Justice Brian Barrington-Foote declined to hand down the eight-to-10-year term requested by the Crown, finding Kevin Darrell Wolbaum doesn’t meet the definition of an exceptional case that would take sentencing beyond the usual range.

Instead, the judge opted to impose a seven-year prison sentence for the August 2015 armed robbery of a gas station convenience store that so badly frightened the clerk he moved to Alberta.

“(The complainant) said that after the robbery, he did not feel safe working evenings and weekends at a gas station,” BarringtonFoote wrote in his sentencing decision delivered at Regina Court of Queen’s Bench on Thursday. “He distrusted strangers. He quit, and moved to Calgary in an attempt, as he put it, ‘to get my normal back.’ ”

Thankfully, the judge noted, the man has made some progress.

Court heard Wolbaum cannot say the same, having reportedly made little headway in sorting through the problems that have led to his 35-year record and 46 convictions.

Barrington-Foote observed Wolbaum has spent much of his adult life in custody, including five federal terms.

In 2007, Wolbaum was convicted of three counts of robbery with violence, earning him a seven-year sentence.

In the latest offence, he was convicted of armed robbery after two masked men entered a gas station convenience store and made off with cash and cigarettes. Court heard the man later found to be Wolbaum brandished a knife and waved it aggressively at the employee while repeatedly demanding money. About 30 seconds later, the second man went behind the counter and took the cigarettes.

Wolbaum was arrested the day after the Aug. 11, 2015, robbery and has been in custody since.

Court heard Wolbaum experienced physical abuse as a child and later, in 2000 and 2002, suffered injuries that back surgery failed to cure. While he has been using drugs for much of his adult life, Wolbaum previously told the court he started using hard drugs as a result of his injuries.

While Crown prosecutor Leona Andrews had argued for the lengthier term, suggesting this is an “exceptional case,” defence lawyer George Combe urged the court to impose just five.

Barrington-Foote found the defence position too low — in part, because of Wolbaum’s “abysmal track record in the community” for reoffending — but disagreed with the Crown that Wolbaum’s case merited the steeper sentence.

In imposing seven years, Barrington-Foote noted a combination of Wolbaum’s age and health problems “offer a glimmer of hope that his risk to reoffend will be less in the future, as a result of exhaustion rather than rehabilitation.”

“We can only hope that the offender will finally be deterred, and live the quiet life he claims to crave,” Barrington-Foot said.

With remand credit factored in, Wolbaum is left with close to four years to serve.