Dangerous, ‘dumb’ courthouse blast was meant to delay sentence
An explosion outside the Saskatoon provincial courthouse wasn’t an act of terrorism, but a man’s unsophisticated and impulsive attempt to delay a sentence — a sentence the Crown was willing to adjourn anyway.
On Wednesday, lawyers explained Rodney James Wilkie’s motive for igniting a camping propane tank left in a backpack just after 11 p.m. on March 29, 2017. He was facing impaired driving charges and, worried he would be going to jail the next day, wanted to adjourn his sentencing date while he awaited an MRI result, a Saskatoon provincial courtroom heard.
Instead, Wilkie, 45, racked up another sentence of two years less a day in a joint submission from the Crown and defence after pleading guilty to obstructing justice, public mischief and arson.
About 20 minutes before the explosion, Wilkie called in a fake report about gang violence in an attempt to tie up police resources, Crown prosecutor Darren Grindle said when outlining the facts of the case at Wilkie’s sentencing hearing.
Surveillance video from inside the courthouse shows Wilkie spraying something on the ground near the Kilborn Place entrance and throwing a lighted object, which burst into flames. Minutes later, there was an explosion that damaged the glass door and ceiling overhang, causing more than $6,000 in damage.
The next morning, police got another phone call from Wilkie threatening to “finish the courthouse today.” At 9 a.m., he walked into court, pleaded guilty to his impaired driving charges and got his jail sentence adjourned — meaning the explosion was for nothing.
“It was such a dumb thing that he did,” defence lawyer Mark Brayford said, adding it shows his client’s level of desperation.
Grindle said police were able to trace both phone calls to Wilkie in an investigation that both the Crown and defence commended.
The two-year jail sentence reflects how Wilkie misdirected police officers, targeted a public institution in Saskatoon’s downtown and endangered the public, even though no one was hurt, Grindle said.
Brayford agreed a jail sentence is necessary to make a public statement, but said the act didn’t involve hate, terrorism or greed and was an attempt to get an adjournment, not to “thwart justice.”
In front of his family members who were in court, Wilkie apologized for the explosion and said he never intended to harm anybody.
Judge Brent Klause asked that in-patient addictions treatment be included in Wilkie’s sentence to address his issues with alcohol. He must also pay restitution for the damage he caused.
Klause’s parting words to Wilkie: “I hope we don’t see you here again.”