Prince Albert Provincial Court. Photo by Chelsea Laskowski
On Monday, an Ahtahkakoop woman received a lengthy sentence for a string of startling robberies this summer in Prince Albert.
Carmine Patti Nayneecassum was told she will spend three years in a penitentiary. This summer, the Ahtahkakoop woman held up four Prince Albert stores – three of them in one day.
Nayneccasum had threatened store staff with blood-filled syringes, and she’d told some people the blood was infected with AIDs. A few months ago, she entered a guilty plea to the offenses.
Still shots of Nayneecassum from surveillance video. Photos courtesy Prince Albert Police
In court on Monday morning, Nayneecassum sat with her head in her hands – crying – after Judge Daunt gave the sentence. Daunt sided with the Crown’s request.
Meanwhile, Legal Aid defense lawyer Pouria Tabrizi had asked for “far less” than two years. Tabrizi said he understands the method of robbery is serious, but so are the family circumstances that took Naynecassum from the reserve to Prince Albert’s streets. In the past, Nayneecassum had accessed addictions services in Ahtahkakoop.
Judge Daunt acknowledges that Nayneecassum struggled with addictions, which led her to steal.
She also notes that the Gladue and Ipeelee factors do apply in this case, saying the struggle with addictions and Nayneecassum’s family struggles have roots in colonialism. Nayneecassum’s mother attended residential school and she comes from Ahtahkakoop, which has a higher rate of alcoholism and drug abuse than other communities.
These factors for First Nations people need to be considered in sentencing.
Daunt concluded that stealing may have resulted from this background, but Naynecassum certainly didn’t have to resort to threaten a violent act that would lead to a slow, agonizing death.
Daunt says while Nayneecassum may have felt the need to prove herself to friends on the streets, but convenience store staff are quote “simply not paid enough” to put up with that kind of threat. Even though no one was actually hurt, Nayneecassum indicated she was prepared to follow through with her threat because she was holding syringes filled with blood, Daunt said.
As a result, the three-year pen sentence is in the higher range for crimes against vulnerable members of the public sector, which starts at six months.
Nayneecassum had no criminal history, but she skipped court and failed to follow her bail conditions after she was released in August.
She’s been in custody since late September, when police re-arrested her.