Court of appeal upholds nine-year sentence for violent robbery
Defence lawyer for Jayvin Mooswa contests consecutive sentences
The province’s highest court upheld a nine-year prison term handed down in 2013 for a violent Saskatoon robbery in which the victim was beaten unconscious, held at gunpoint, and forced to barter for his own life.
Brothers and fellow street gang members Jayvin and Jeremy Mooswa were found not guilty of attempted murder in the January 2012 incident, but were convicted at trial of robbery with a firearm and unlawful confinement. In Jayvin’s case (Jeremy was not sentenced at the same time), Justice Gerald Allbright opted to hand down consecutive terms for the two offences — four years for the confinement in addition to five years for the robbery.
In imposing consecutive terms, Allbright said the confinement and use of the sawed-off shotgun must have added “horror” to the event for the victim, who believed he was going to die.
Through his legal counsel Kathy Hodgson-Smith, Jayvin argued Allbright erred in passing consecutive terms as the offences were part of the same event, and that the judge had not provided an adequate analysis of the facts in his decision to explain why he opted for consecutive sentences.
Meanwhile, director of appeals Dean Sinclair urged the court to leave the sentence as it stood, arguing the amount of time Jayvin received was fit given the host of aggravating factors in this case.
The court — represented by Justices Gary Lane, Neal Caldwell and Jacelyn Ryan-Froslie — agreed with the Crown on that point. In presenting the court’s unanimous decision, Ryan-Froslie said that even though the sentencing judge didn’t go through a factual analysis regarding consecutive or concurrent sentencing, it was clear he was aware of the issue.
Ryan-Froslie said the ultimate question was whether the sentence was demonstrably unfit and, in this case, the court found it was not.
In reaching that conclusion, the court noted aggravating factors such as the severe trauma caused to the victim, the fact the gun was discharged within inches of him, and the “gratuitous and unrestrained” violence used by the offenders during what was described as a “prolonged event.”