Two more individuals who entered guilty pleas to robbery of the Queen's Hotel have been sentenced to jail terms.
Judge David Kaiser sentenced Dustin Night in provincial court Thursday to four and a half years for his role in the robbery, which took place Jan. 21 of this year. He had been remanded in custody since the robbery and will be credited with 14 months of remand time, so will serve an additional 40 months in a federal penitentiary. He also received a firearms ban and a DNA sample was ordered.
Night was held responsible for committing the actual theft of liquor from behind the bar at the Queen's Hotel while his accomplice, Carter Night, beat a female with a baseball bat.
Also sentenced in court Thursday was Troy Rosette, who received three years for his role in the robbery. Rosette drove the red pickup truck used to transport Dustin, Carter and two other individuals to and from the Queen's Hotel.
Rosette was credited with 13 months remand time, which means he will serve the remaining one year and 11 months behind bars. As well, he will serve six-months probation, along with the firearms ban and DNA order.
During sentencing, Judge Kaiser was mindful of some of the case law outlining the sentences given in similar cases, as well as the six-year sentence that was imposed on Carter Night after he entered a guilty plea to robbery earlier this year.
Kaiser described Carter Night as having the greatest role and bearing the greatest responsibility, and was mindful of his sentence length in imposing jail terms for both Dustin Night and Troy Rosette.
Sentencing took place over the course of two days with Kaiser hearing arguments from counsel Wednesday. Dustin Night and Rosette were sentenced at the same time.
During that Wednesday hearing a surveillance video from the Queen's Hotel, recorded around 9 p.m. Jan. 21, was played. Dustin Night was identified as the individual who was seen entering to steal liquor from behind the bar.
The Crown also said that eyewitnesses outside the hotel saw both Carter and Dustin Night enter the hotel, with both covered up and one of the individuals getting a baseball bat out of the back of the vehicle before going in.
Crown prosecutor Jennifer Robertson argued for a term in the range of four to six years for Night. Night's lawyer, Randy Kirkham, suggested the appropriate sentence would be four years and cited numerous mitigating factors, saying his client was ready to admit to being an alcoholic and was willing to do something about it.
One of the statements Night was quoted as saying was that "drunkenness f-ked up my life," Kirkham said. As well, Night had been co-operative with police and made a statement to them the day after the robbery, indicating to them he knew about the bat but didn't think it was going to be used in the robbery.
As for Rosette, the Crown argued his role also included being part of the original planning for the robbery involving himself and the other four individuals.
The group had originally targeted the Happy Inn off sale in North Battleford, but changed their minds soon after arriving there and made their way instead to the Queen's Hotel in Battleford, with Rosette driving the red pickup truck there.
According to the summary of facts presented, Rosette knew there was going to be a robbery but did not know a baseball bat was going to be used.
Rosette also drove the group down to Humpty's following the robbery, where they counted the alcohol that had been stolen. They then drove down Highway 16, consuming alcohol all the way, before their truck broke down at the Red Bull restaurant and gas station off in Radisson.
Rosette departed in another vehicle while the others drove a Ford Fusion back to the Battlefords, where they were stopped in Denholm and arrested. Rosette turned himself in Feb. 7.
The crown had asked for a term in the range for three to five years for Rosette. Rosette's lawyer John Hardy argued for a much shorter sentence, pointing to another case where a getaway driver received only 13 months for his role in an attempted robbery. Hardy asked for a sentence that could be addressed with provincial time, not federal time, and suggested Battlefords Correctional Centre would be an appropriate venue for that, followed by three years probation.
Judge Kaiser, however, responded to Hardy he didn't think Battlefords Correctional Centre would be able to accept Rosette given the violent nature of the crime.
Both Rosette and Night were given an opportunity to address the court Wednesday prior to sentence.
"I'm very sorry," Rosette said from the prisoner box, saying he wanted to "change my life around, go down the right path."
"I'm sorry for this whole thing - this should never have happened," said Night, who said he took responsibility for the robbery.
Judge Kaiser handed down his sentence in provincial court the following day, Thursday, and noted the impact of the robbery on the victim at the hotel.
"The consequences for the victim have been horrific - it could have been worse," said Kaiser, who noted the crime shocked the community.
He said Dustin Night knew a weapon was being used, and "took the risk his brother would use that weapon," thereby bearing a substantial responsibility for what his brother did.
Rosette, on the other hand, did not know a weapon was being used, said Kaiser, but he knew that violence and the threat of violence would be used.
Kaiser ran through a number of the mitigating and aggravating factors involved in the case. The one aggravating factor that trumped all others in sentencing for Kaiser was that the robbery was, as he put it, "shocking and senseless" and "utterly unnecessary."
"The violence was extreme, and the victim was badly hurt," said Kaiser. "It was that brutality that overshadows all other elements of that case."
After imposing the jail sentence for both Night and Rosette, Kaiser took note of Night's comment that alcohol had "f-ked up my life," and told Night that it was the choices he had made, not alcohol, that had messed up his life.
"It wasn't the alcohol to blame - it was you," Kaiser told Night before he and Rosette were led away by guards.
