Sentencing adjourned in weapons case

It could be several more weeks before a former Lethbridge man is sentenced for firing a rifle in a westside neighbourhood nearly three years ago.

Jesse Hills was scheduled for sentencing Monday in Lethbridge Court of Queen’s Bench, but instead an agent for the accused’s lawyer asked for an adjournment to March 27. Hills still won’t be sentenced that day, but a date for sentencing is expected to be set.

Sentencing has been adjourned several times since Hills pleaded guilty Nov. 28 of last year to single charges of discharging a firearm into a home with reckless disregard for people inside, pointing a firearm, unauthorized possession of a firearm and mischief causing damage under $5,000.

Court was told Hills doesn’t remember the incident, but he agrees with allegations presented by the Crown that about midnight May 6, 2014 he loaded a .303 rifle and, with a baseball bat, walked out into the neighbourhood of Mount Rundle Way and Mount Rundle Road West.

A man had just climbed into his car after attending a nearby house party when he saw Hills run toward his car and swing a bat at it. Hills also dropped to one knee and fired a rifle in the man’s direction.

Hills walked to another parked car, which was locked, and smashed the windows with the bat, and then walked up a driveway and fired one round into the home. The bullet smashed through the livingroom window and then an interior wall into a computer room occupied by the homeowner.

The homeowner, who saw Hills standing in his driveway with the rifle, awakened his wife in their bedroom then hit the alarm on his security system before retreating to the basement. When someone banged on his door, he picked up an axe and called 911.

Police arrived shortly afterward and Hills was arrested.

Defence lawyer Greg White told court in November his client does not remember the incidents, and only recalls waking up in a police cell.