Man ordered not to drink alcohol after walking into wrong house

A Lethbridge man who was so drunk he didn’t realize he had walked into someone else’s home, has been given a suspended sentence and ordered not to drink alcohol.

The homeowner called police just after 9 p.m. on July 2 of last year and said the unknown man entered his home, walked around then fell asleep near some stairs.

Officers went to the home on Temple Crescent West and found the homeowner, his wife and children waiting outside. The homeowner told police the man, identified as Sean Michael Davis, was still inside the house and lying at the bottom of the stairs leading to the basement.

“Davis was lying at the bottom of the stairs almost as if he had fallen there; he was sleeping,” Crown Prosecutor Marshall Gourlay said Monday in Lethbridge court of justice, where Davis pleaded guilty to being unlawfully in a house.

Gourlay said Davis, who had scratches on his face and vomit on his lips and shirt, was arrested and taken to the police station until he was sober.

“Davis was very intoxicated,” Gourlay said. “He could not follow direction or form proper sentences.”

Davis was charged and released on an undertaking with conditions he not go near the home.

In recommending a 12-month conditional sentence, Gourlay noted that even though Davis has a criminal record, his last conviction was 10 years ago.

“Your honour, this appears to be a case of somebody going into the wrong house because he was so intoxicated he couldn’t tell the right house.”

Duty counsel told court Davis regrets his actions, and agrees to follow conditions of his probation, which includes abstaining from drinking alcohol.

“I haven’t touched alcohol since the incident,” Davis said.

Davis was also ordered to pay a $100 victim fine surcharge, and he must be assessed and take counselling and treatment for alcohol addiction.