Theft of car, antique gun leads to time in jail

Gordon John Doughty sentenced to 180 days

A 60-year-old man who stole a car from someone he was staying with and an antique gun from someone else was sentenced recently to 180 days in jail.

Gordon John Doughty appeared before Chief Judge Nancy Orr in provincial court in Charlottetown where he was scheduled for a trial on charges going back to 2013 and 2015.

Instead, Doughty changed his pleas to guilty of stealing a car, stealing a handgun and breaching his probation.

Crown attorney Gerald Quinn told the court Doughty had been living out West for several years and had returned to P.E.I. when he committed the first offence in 2013.

Doughty was staying with someone he knew in Stratford, took the keys to a car that belonged to someone who lived there and drove it to Charlottetown.

He later left the vehicle on a street where it was inoperable, leaking fluids because of damage he caused, and had no keys in it.

The police didn’t find Doughty after the theft.

In 2015, the police responded to another crime involving Doughty, this time after a gun collector who lived in Cornwall reported Doughty stole one of his handguns.

Quinn told the court it was a black-powder handgun from 1866, which the owner believed was used to shoot American outlaw Jesse James.

The gun had sentimental value to the owner, Quinn said.

It wasn’t recovered, and Doughty’s lawyer told the court her client didn’t know where it was.

Doughty was back in P.E.I. for about a week before the police arrested him and he has been in custody since Nov. 15, 2017.

Before sentencing Doughty, Orr noted he had a criminal record that included convictions in B.C., Moncton, Winnipeg and Ottawa since the incidents in P.E.I.

After credit for time already spent in custody, Doughty was left with 86 days to serve on his sentence.

Doughty will be on probation for two years and must pay $1,000 in restitution to the car owner.

He is also under a weapons prohibition for 10 years.