Additional jail time wouldn’t help with rehab, judge says

Judge lets Princeton man go, but with ‘significant restrictions’

Sentencing has finally been handed down to a Princeton man involved in a string of break and enters across the South Okanagan in 2016.

Aaron Ceretti, 31, previously pleaded guilty to three counts of break and enter and a string of other weapon- and drug-related charges for incidents that took place over the course of two days in Penticton, Kaleden and Naramata in June 2016.

He was handed a three-year probation order Friday morning in a Penticton courtroom after Justice Al Betton said it would be “counterproductive” to send Ceretti, who had been credited with 1,089 days in jail, back to prison after hearing the steps he has made to rehabilitate himself.

Police were able to identify Ceretti alongside two others by home surveillance footage obtained during their investigation in 2016 after reports of multiple break and enters.

He was arrested a short time later after he was found in a residence with a “large volume” of property from the break and enters and a loaded 12-gauge shotgun.

He also had also had methamphetamine on him.

Court heard Ceretti was released on bail in March 2018, but was later in and out of custody thereafter for continually breaching his bail conditions.

He was released at the beginning of 2019 and has remained out of prison since, taking steps towards rehabilitation, according to a Ministry of Children and Family Development social worker who has been working with Ceretti and his family for almost a year.

Those steps include abstaining from drugs and partaking in a relapse prevention course through Interior Health.

But Betton also heard from Crown counsel, who said Ceretti had been seen by RCMP hanging out with a “criminally entrenched” group and also spotted at a residence known for drug trafficking.

“He’s now been out of custody for in excess a year, and … apparently doing well, with some apprehension, I must say,” Betton said.

“However, returning him back to custody, given his present situation, would almost certainly be counterproductive in a rehabilitation point of view,” he continued.

“I’m not going to do that.” Some members of Ceretti’s family burst into tears upon Betton’s decision, who quickly reminded Ceretti his release would not “be without significant restrictions.”

Those restrictions include a strict curfew, a no-go order to the victim’s residences, as well as a lifetime ban on owning weapons and a DNA order.