Jail term for man for his role in home invasion

When Niagara police searched the bedroom of a 15-year-old boy as part of a 2021 investigation into a violent home invasion they discovered a map to the victim’s home and an ominous checklist.

Written on a piece of paper seized from a Welland residence were the words “duct tape, latex gloves, zip ties, flashlight.”

The 20-year-old victim of the targeted home invasion at a secluded property in Pelham had been taped to a chair by three armed youths.

“There’s no minimizing how serious these offences were,” Judge Donald Wolfe told 19-year-old Aiden Baker.

“The one place (a person) is entitled to feel safe is in his family home and (the victim) described what happened as being the most frightening experience of his life.”

In Ontario Court of Justice in St. Catharines Thursday, Baker was sentenced to two years behind bars and placed on probation for three years on charges of break and enter, forcible confinement and a firearms offence.

Baker was 18 when he and two other males forced their way into the home shortly before 7 a.m. on Sept. 4, 2021.

The Fenwick resident and a second man carried firearms, while the third was armed with a knife.

The trio confronted the sleeping resident, and ordered him into the basement. When the man initially refused, court was told, a round was fired into the ceiling. The victim then had his hands taped behind his back and was he forced into the basement.

With the man taped to a chair, the trio ransacked the home and grabbed a banker’s box containing thousands of dollars.

Later that day, Niagara Regional Police received a call that two young men were “playing” with a firearm in an apartment complex in Welland.

The males were arrested and police recovered a revolver pellet gun, the banker’s box and almost $9,000 in cash.

The subsequent investigation uncovered the note and the map.

The victim did not sustain any physical injuries as a result of the incident, court heard, but he still struggles with the emotional impact of what happened.

“He continues to be haunted, that he might be attacked again for financial gain,” the judge said.

A third suspect remains at large.