ROBBERY SENTENCING

Four years in prison for local bank robber

A man who pled guilty to three robberies over the past year has been sentenced to four years in prison.

Ronald Big Bull appeared Tuesday as a prisoner in Medicine Hat Provincial Court, where he blew kisses to family members in attendance to support him.

Pre-sentencing and Gladue reports were prepared In advance of the sentencing, which was a joint submission between defence and Crown.

According to the Crown, an employee of TD Bank observed a man walking into the building with a ski mask, sunglasses and pellet gun around 5:20 p.m.

He went directly to the teller, demanding $15,000 in cash.

“He was shaky as hell,” the teller observed, according to the Crown.

The teller gave him $1,765, which was all they had.

Witnesses saw the man exit a van outside the bank, and one of them photographed the licence plate number with their cellphone.

The licence plate matched the car, which belonged to Big Bull, so police got a tracking warrant for his phone.

When the police tracked him down, Big Bull was covered in red dye from the dye pack that came with the cash.

The accused co-operated with the police, as the Crown noted, confessing to two other incidents — an attempted robbery at a CIBC on March 19, 2018, and a robbery at an ATB on Nov. 9, 2017.

The Crown said Big Bull’s guilty plea “has considerable mitigation.”

According to the pre-sentencing report, the accused has no prior criminal record.

Defence lawyer Robert Robbenhaar said Big Bull had accepted responsibility for his actions and expressed remorse.

The Gladue report detailed the loss of cultural identity Big Bull experienced as the son of a residential school survivor.

As someone of mixed heritage, Big Bull was an outsider on and off of reserve, Robbenhaar said. He suffered emotional and physical abuse at home, including being horsewhipped.

Big Bull was sentenced to 18 months consecutive for each robbery and one year for the attempted robbery, as well as a 10-year weapons prohibition.

Since he already has 205 days in custody, he will serve an additional three years and 52 days in prison.

Three remaining counts of wearing a disguise to commit an indictable offence and one charge of uttering threats were withdrawn by the Crown.