The accused was convicted after trial of possession of cocaine and fentanyl for the purposes of trafficking.
The offences involved 28.7 grams of cocaine and 183.6 grams of fentanyl seized from a rental vehicle and a residential search.
The court found the accused to be a mid-level trafficker motivated by financial gain.
The court rejected a conditional sentence as inconsistent with the fundamental sentencing objectives of denunciation and deterrence given the large quantity of fentanyl, and imposed a penitentiary sentence.
Significant mitigating factors — including five years of compliance with stringent bail conditions, prosocial conduct, and severe collateral consequences to young children — reduced the sentence from a starting point of eight years to a net sentence of six years, reflecting one year credit for restrictive bail conditions and three days of pre-trial custody.
