Handgun, brass knuckles lead to guilty verdicts

A Prince George man was found guilty of six weapons-related counts from a discovery of a handgun with ammunition and a set of brass knuckles in his pickup truck during a traffic stop 17 months ago.

Jason Dean Theroux, 51, was pulled over on Aug. 26, 2018 for driving with an exposed light bar. Popular among off-road enthusiasts, light bars must be covered whenever a vehicle is being driven on a public road.

RCMP noticed a child’s metal baseball bat in the centre console, raising concerns for officer safety and ordered Theroux to get out. As they opened the door, RCMP then found a set of brass knuckles perched atop a pair of gloves in the driver’s door-side compartment.

That sparked a more thorough search and, in the back seat behind the driver, police found a satchel that turned out to hold a computer tablet, an unloaded but unsecured .40-calibre handgun and ammunition capable of being fired in the gun. A Guy Fawkes mask was also found in the vehicle and shotgun ammunition was found in a large hockey bag the truck box. Theroux had denied knowledge of the handgun, as well as the laptop, but provincial court judge Cassandra Malfair found otherwise.

Although the pickup truck was registered in his ex-girlfriend’s name, the judge noted Theroux consistently referred to the vehicle as “my truck” while conversing with the police.

It was also noted the tablet’s homepage identified the user as “Jay T”, subscriber information on the SIM card showed it registered to Theroux, complete with his home address and phone number.

Police also noted the battery was 100-per-cent charged at the time of Theroux’s arrest and had declined to 86 per cent the next day, leading Malfair to infer it had recently been recharged.

Theroux’s defence counsel had suggested the reason his SIM card was in the tablet was because it was a gift or incentive for taking on a cellphone subscription, and the tablet was actually owned by someone else, but no evidence was presented to support the argument.

In relation to the handgun, Theroux was found guilty of improper storage, possessing a restricted weapon without a licence, possessing a firearm without a registration certificate and knowingly occupying a vehicle in which there is a firearm. For the brass knuckles, Theroux was found guilty of possessing a weapon for a dangerous purpose and possessing a prohibited weapon.

The handgun had been stolen from a Burns Lake home in 2017, but a count of possessing a stolen weapon was stayed due to a lack of evidence that Theroux knew it had been stolen.

A count of possessing for a dangerous purpose in relation to the baseball bat was stayed because Theroux maintained it was for his son’s use.

Theroux, who had no criminal record prior to the verdict, will be sentenced at a later date once a pre-sentence report has been completed.