Man robs 2 stores soon after release from prison
A stint in prison for armed robbery didn’t stop Cordelle Tegan Lynn Ausland from committing two more robberies while he was out on statutory release.
Ausland had just finished serving the custodial portion of a five-year sentence when, along with two other men, he robbed the Mac’s Convenience Store on Diefenbaker Drive in Saskatoon on Oct. 24, 2015. Three days later, he used a sawed-off shotgun to rob a 7-Eleven in the same neighbourhood.
In both cases, Ausland stole thousands of dollars worth of cigarettes. Some that were taken in the second robbery had a tracking device, leading police to a van that sped off and crashed into a fence in a residential neighbourhood, according to an agreed statement of facts. A woman inside the van described two suspects who ran away, but said she didn’t know their names.
Ausland’s DNA was found on a piece of black cloth he used to cover his face during the first robbery, and on a blue latex glove he wore during the second robbery.
On Friday, the 29-year-old was sentenced to 11 years in prison after Judge Mona Dovell accepted a joint sentencing submission from the Crown and defence.
The fact that Ausland committed the same serious offences he had just been in prison for is very concerning and the basis for seeking the 11-year sentence, prosecutor Rochelle Wempe said. If not for the totality principle — which requires the court to craft a global sentence that is not considered “excessive” when dealing with multiple offences — she said the proposed sentence would have been much higher.
Ausland pleaded guilty to 11 charges before he was sentenced in Saskatoon Court of Queen’s Bench. The most serious were armed robbery, for which he received eight years, and possession of fentanyl, morphine and hydromorphone for the purpose of trafficking, for which he received three years.
He was sentenced concurrently on prohibited firearms offences related to a sawed-off rifle police found in a gym bag during a search of Ausland’s vehicle on Nov. 8, 2015. Police also found multiple painkillers, including two boxes of fentanyl patches that were stolen during a robbery at the NorDon Drugs, court heard.
Defence lawyer Pat Tondevold said her client is a chronic pain sufferer and drug addict who did not receive adequate addictions programming while in prison. Dovell agreed to recommend that Ausland receive addictions treatment and see a pain management specialist. Because he was serving the remainder of his first sentence, Ausland only received remand credit for the 17 days since his warrant expiry date — the final day of that sentence — in February.