A Corner Brook man expressed remorse for his actions when he appeared in provincial court on Wednesday afternoon for the start of his sentencing hearing.
In an emotional speech, 25-year-old Michael Steven Greene said he never knew how much he should be changing in his life until he stepped inside jail.
“I’ve got ambitions in this life and I don’t want to be in behind bars. It’s a waste of me. It’s not who I am,” he said through tears.
Greene has been in custody since Jan. 17 when he was charged with resisting or obstructing a peace officer. The other charges — two counts of uttering a threat to kill a woman, unlawfully publishing, distributing, selling an intimate image of a person without consent and a breach of an undertaking — date back to October 2017.
The victim of the uttering threats and the unlawful distribution of an intimate image are the same woman and someone he had been in a relationship with.
The uttering threats charges occurred on Oct. 6 and 9, 2017. On Oct. 6 he messaged the woman through another man’s Facebook Messenger threatening to kill himself, to go to her house and to kill her.
The Oct. 9 incident occurred on Broadway and Greene kicked the door on the woman’s car and made what she called a cut-throat gesture towards her and mouthed the words “I’m going to kill you.”
The distribution of an intimate image occurred on Oct. 14 when Greene sent a pornographic video of the woman to one of her friends. The woman had given the video to Greene, but thought it had been deleted. She told police she had not given permission for the video to be sent to anyone after she gave it to Greene and she had not given it to anyone else.
In her victim impact statement, the woman, who was not present at the hearing, said she was mortified and upset to learn the video had been sent to someone. And she was terrified about where else it had been sent and also what Greene was saying about her to others.
She said she was concerned of what else he was capable of if he would go so far as to send the video of her.
“I feel he is very manipulative.”
She knows what happened was not her fault and said she has been able to move on.
Crown attorney Trina Simms suggested a sentence of one to two months in jail on the uttering threats charge from Oct. 9 and a three-year probationary period on the charge from Oct. 6.
On the charge of distributing the video she asked for four months in jail.
For the breach of an undertaking she suggested one-two months. Simms asked that each of the sentences be served consecutive to one another for a total of six-eight months.
Greene’s lawyer, Julia Smart, said his sentence should take into consideration the time he has served since January.
She said the offences before court are quite significant and her client was on a downward spiral at the time.
But, she said there is hope for rehabilitation and requested a blended sentence that would include the time already served on a portion of the charges and an alternate sentence — house arrest or an intermittent sentence — for the remainder.
She said the distribution of the video was limited and it was not put on the Internet. So, for that charge she suggested a three-month sentence. Her overall position on sentence was for four-six months followed by two years of probation.
Judge Wayne Gorman will render his decision on sentence on March. 28.
