Jason Earle was sentenced to 30 months in prison Monday, for charges stemming from a standoff in which he threatened to engage in a shootout with police.
In handing down his sentence, Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court Justice Vikas Khaladkar acknowledged Earle's mental-health issues, but said he was troubled by the fact Earle had planned to die by suicide by forcing police to shoot him, potentially injuring or killing others in the process.
"To put it another way, the fact that Jason Earle sought to end his own life through the agency of police officers in an armed standoff diminishes the sympathy the court may have felt for the situation if he was dealing with a simple case of possession of a prohibited weapon," the judge said, adding that inviting police into the house to shoot him was tantamount to carrying a loaded firearm in public.
Earle, now 25, had been convicted in late November of firearms charges as well as charges of uttering threats and assaulting an RNC officer during the standoff, which happened at a Barachois Street home in September 2016.
The court heard during his trial that Earle had been suicidal and had gone to the Waterford Hospital earlier in the day looking for help, but had been turned away before he barricaded himself inside his mother's home with a sawed-off shotgun.
In a call to 911, Earle made a report of an armed and dangerous man who was going to hurt people, and threatened to shoot police and himself.
"This is what's going to happen, OK?" he told the operator. "They're going to come in, I'm going to shoot them, they're going to shoot back, I'm going to die.
"I'm not going to jail. I'm going in the ground."
Khaladkar accepted evidence from Earle’s father that the gun had been discharged three times: once into the telephone, once near the patio door when Earle lost his balance and once out a front window as his father tried to disarm him. The shot into the telephone was deliberate, the judge acknowledged.
Khaladkar also recognized some mitigating factors in the case, including that Earle had not been in trouble with the law for seven years, and that he was in significant mental distress on the day in question, having tried unsuccessfully to get help.
The judge accepted evidence from Earle's psychiatrist, who testified last month that Earle suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, ADHD and anxiety, and is "still a child emotionally," but had been making efforts to get himself well.
Earle's lawyer, Jennifer Curran, had argued for a one-year jail sentence for Earle, while prosecutor Erin Matthews had argued for a four-year term.
Khaladkar dismissed both suggestions, deeming one crushing and detrimental to Earle's prospects of rehabilitation, and the other not enough. He gave Earle a total of 30 months in prison, ordered him to submit a DNA sample and banned him from possessing a firearm for life.
With credit for 110 days in custody, Earle has just over two years left to serve.
Last month, Earle was given a sentence of time served for charges relating to another standoff, this time on Kennedy Road in the west end of St. John's in September. In that incident, Earle was armed with a knife and told police to shoot him.
Earle has one more matter still before the courts: a charge of failing to appear before a judge, laid after he didn't show up to be sentenced by Khaladkar at his original sentencing date last month. A warrant was issued for his arrest and he was taken into custody Christmas Eve.
Twitter: @tara_bradbury
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'I'm not going to jail, I'm going in the ground'