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A youthful offender received a conditional sentence for drug trafficking and loaded firearm possession.
Raphael Sosa pleaded guilty to trafficking cocaine, possession of proceeds, and possession of a loaded firearm.
The court considered his extreme youth (18 at the time of offences), lack of criminal record, and significant rehabilitative efforts since arrest, including completing high school and securing employment.
Despite the seriousness of the combined offences, which typically warrant a 3-5 year sentence, the court found that his exceptional circumstances warranted a conditional sentence of two years less a day, followed by two years of probation, along with ancillary orders.
Dangerous offender designation granted with determinate sentence and long-term supervision.
The Crown sought dangerous offender designation arising from repeated intimate partner assaults, including two sexual assaults with weapons, committed over a short period while the offender was bound by multiple probation orders.
Relying on psychiatric evidence and the offender’s extensive record of violent, sexual, and breach-related offending, the court found the statutory criteria under s. 753 were proved beyond a reasonable doubt.
Applying the governing dangerous offender framework, the court concluded that a conventional sentence alone would not adequately protect the public, but that a determinate penitentiary sentence followed by a 10-year long-term supervision order would do so.
The offender was designated a dangerous offender and sentenced to a total of eight and one half years’ imprisonment, less four years’ pre-trial custody credit, with ancillary orders.
