Man pleads guilty to various charges

When a motel clerk answered the phone on the evening of May 7, 2020, the last thing the clerk expected to hear was the frantic voice of a child calling for help.

The crying seven-year-old boy said his mother wouldn’t wake up, and the clerk arrived at the room to discover a man and woman passed out in the bathroom.

By the time EMS arrived, the woman, Megan Morning Bird, had regained consciousness, but her partner, Lorne Grant Digout, had to be revived. Lying on the floor next to him, police found a bag with drug paraphernalia and drugs, including two small rocks of carfentanil, and two syringes filled with fentanyl.

Police also learned that Digout was subject to probation conditions at the time, which prohibited him from having any contact with Morning Bird.

Digout pleaded guilty Thursday in Lethbridge provincial court to single counts of failing to comply with probation and causing a child to be drug endangered, and two counts of drug possession. He was sentenced to 90 days in jail, but given full credit for time already spent in custody waiting to resolve the charges

Lethbridge lawyer Ingrid Hess told court her client had a traumatic childhood, during which his father stabbed his mother. He became addicted to alcohol around 2004 when his four-year-old daughter was killed by his partner at the time, and he later became addicted to drugs, for which he has no tolerance, Hess said.

"He has struggled with addictions ever since." Judge Kristin Ailsby said she regrets that the young child was involved and had to call for help, but she also expressed empathy for Digout and his difficult circumstances.

"I really want you to become well," She told Digout, who appeared in court by CCTV from the Lethbridge Correctional Centre.