Man and woman jailed for break and enter
A P.E.I. man with what was described as an “unenviable” criminal record was sentenced recently to more than one year in jail after a judge rejected a joint recommendation from the Crown and defence. Richard Thomas Lawlor, 30, and Jamie Lynn Gill, 33, appeared before Judge Jeff Lantz in provincial court in Charlottetown for sentencing on several charges that included break and enter.
\Lantz sentenced Lawlor to one year and one month in jail, while he gave Gill 180 days in jail. In doing so, he rejected the joint recommendation for Lawlor, saying he didn’t believe it was justified. He accepted the joint recommendation for Gill.
After Lawlor previously entered guilty pleas to the charges he was facing, the Crown and defence made a joint recommendation of eight months in jail, including six months for the break and enter.
Gill also pleaded guilty, and there was a joint recommendation of six months for her, including five months for the break and enter involving Lawlor. Lantz said the joint recommended sentence for Lawlor seemed out of proportion because he had a criminal record that included two prior convictions on break and enter charges.
Gill had no prior convictions for that offence, Lantz said. During the proceedings, the court also heard Gill was pregnant with Lawlor’s child. After hearing submissions from the defence and Crown in support of the joint recommendation, Lantz said he didn’t think he had ever rejected a joint recommendation in his 13 years on the bench.
However, Lantz said sentences in the past haven’t deterred Lawlor, and protection of the public takes precedence over rehabilitation. He also said he felt he had no other option but to reject the recommendation for Lawlor. Lantz gave Lawlor credit of 247 days and Gill 78 days for time spent in custody since their arrests, reducing the time left on their sentences by those amounts.
Both of the accused will be on probation for two years after their release. They will also be under 10-year weapons prohibitions and must provide DNA samples for the national databank.