Man stole gun to kill himself
Adam Hanlon has overcome a lot, but his crimes are serious, Crown says
A man facing certain jail time for stealing a gun from a St. John’s firing range last summer told the court his side of the story Monday, saying he was severely mentally unwell at the time and the gun was meant for shooting no one but himself.
Adam Hanlon, 35, testified he is doing better these days, having sought treatment since he was released on bail, but he still fought to get the words out as he responded to his lawyer’s questions. In the courtroom, members of his family wiped away tears.
Hanlon said he had long suffered from addictions to alcohol and crack cocaine, and was suicidal last Aug. 6 when he walked into Complete Gun Repair and asked to use the firing range. When they told him the range was busy and he should come back in a few hours, he did, choosing a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun and five magazines with 10 rounds of ammunition each.
He said he didn’t have much of a plan of exactly how he was going to go about things, but when the opportunity arose to take the gun and ammo and run, he did.
“Did you have any intention to hurt anyone else?” Hanlon’s lawyer, Randy Piercey, asked him.
“Absolutely not,” Hanlon replied.
“Why did you ask for 50 rounds of ammunition?” prosecutor Mike Murray later asked.
“I didn’t,” Hanlon said, explaining that when he was asked if he wanted a half or full box of ammunition, he impulsively selected the full one after noting there wasn’t much difference in price.
When Hanlon was arrested, he was found with the gun — with the safety engaged — and four rounds of the ammunition on him. He told police he had lost the other round in a bog the previous night.
On the stand, he explained how he had been running from what he believed were police dogs.
“All I could picture was getting attacked by dogs,” he said. “I took the firearm out.”
Hanlon described in painful detail what he did next, and told the court he only realized after the gun didn’t fire that the Adam Hanlon is led out of court in St. John’s in August 2017.
magazine had fallen out.
Hanlon has pleaded guilty to a raft of charges, including theft under $5,000, unauthorized possession of a firearm, unlawful possession of a firearm with ammunition, unlawful possession of a firearm in a motor vehicle and dangerous driving, as well as a charge of assault and theft under $5,000 related to an incident of domestic violence a month earlier.
Staff at Complete Gun Repair told police they chased Hanlon into the parking lot after he stole the gun, and had punched the window, trying to get it back as Hanlon struggled to back the car up. One employee suffered injuries when he was thrown to the ground as the car pulled away.
Hanlon was eventually arrested in a car with other people, and threw the gun out the car window as police approached.
Murray is asking the court for a jail term of 3 1/2 years for Hanlon, while Piercey is arguing for a sentence of between 12 and 18 months.
Piercey submitted more than a dozen letters of support from Hanlon’s family, girlfriend and co-workers to Judge David Orr, and noted Hanlon is a father of two. Since his arrest he has sought private and group counselling and other mental health programming, and attends sessions between seven and 21 times a week, Piercey said.
Hanlon told the judge he is now sober and taking anti-depressants, which he finds helpful.
Murray noted the gravity of Hanlon’s crimes, mentioning the domestic assault and the pre-planning of the gun theft among the aggravating factors of the case.
“It’s apparent he’s overcome a lot over the years, but nevertheless, these are serious offences,” Murray said.
Orr will hand down his sentence April 16.