Man jailed four years for violent home invasion

A man who shot a woman with an air pistol multiple times should consider himself lucky he wasn’t shot by police the night he and two other men forced their way into a St. Catharines apartment, a judge said Monday.

“It’s quite conceivable that you could have been killed that night,” Judge Cameron Watson told Jesse Bannon in Ontario Court of Justice in St. Catharines. “You’re wandering around with a pellet gun, and the police don’t have the luxury of knowing whether it’s a real firearm capable of discharging bullets, or something you buy at Canadian Tire that fires BBs.”

Bannon was sentenced to four years in jail after he pleaded guilty to break and enter and commit robbery and using an imitation firearm to commit an offence, charges the judge called “extraordinarily serious offences.”

“This home invasion inflicted physical and psychological terror on the victim,” the judge said. “This lady was dragged off the couch, shot a number of times with a pellet pistol, had her hair pulled out and was kicked. These are significant aggravating circumstances in respect to this matter.”

On Jan. 15, court heard three men forced their way into an apartment on Bond Street and confronted a 23-yearold woman sleeping on the couch. A witness later reported to police he had heard the group demanding “where’s the money, where are the drugs?” One man was armed with a propane torch and Bannon and a second man had air pistols. The woman was shot seven times. Bannon fired three of those shots. He also dragged her off the couch by her hair, pulling out clumps of her hair and kicked her in the torso.

The 34-year-old St. Catharines resident fled prior to police arrival, however, a police dog was able to track the defendant, who ignored police requests to surrender.

The dog subdued the man, who was then taken to hospital where he received 55 stitches as result of his interaction with the police dog.

Defence counsel Mark Evans said his client struggles with drug addiction.

“I’m highly remorseful about what I did,” Bannon said. “I’m very sorry to the victim.”