Tanner Healey knows he’s facing a lengthy jail sentence and when given the opportunity to speak at his sentencing hearing on Thursday morning he told the court he understands how serious the offences he’s been convicted of are.
Healey, 23, was convicted of use of a firearm in committing a robbery, break and enter and being disguised with intent.
The Deer Lake man was one of four charged following a home invasion in Reidville on Oct. 8, 2017.
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Healey expressed remorse for what he did, and said the time he has served since his arrest has been hard on him.
He told the court he has learned his lesson.
A pre-sentence report completed for the hearing discusses Healey’s issues with substance abuse. He started using and selling cocaine and marijuana at the age of 13.
He stopped using in June 2017, but before the home invasion had resumed and had been using heavily at the time.
He also expressed remorse in the report and a willingness to accept whatever sentence he’s given.
In an agreed statement of facts, the court heard that Healey was one of two men who entered the home that day. He was armed with what was said to be a replica handgun and told two female occupants of the home to stay where they were.
When he was picked up by police, Healey was co-operative, confessed his role in the home invasion and told police where to find the weapons used in the offence.
The other was a shotgun that Ricky Halfyard, 29, brought into the home when he demanded the $250 a male occupant owed him for drugs.
Going to the house had been planned and earlier in the day Healey contacted the man’s sister to find out where he was.
Even though he had a bandana covering his face one of the women in the house recognized Healey and the male victim called Halfyard by name.
While Healey was not the leader of the home invasion, Crown attorney Lori St. Croix said he was a party to the offence and his level of blame and culpability was still high. He knew what was going to happen and that the shotgun was loaded.
Halfyard was sentenced on April 5 to a total of five years in jail on charges of break and entry with intent to commit an indictable offence, using a firearm during the commission of an offence and using a firearm to commit robbery.
St. Croix suggested an appropriate sentence for Healey was in the range of four and half to five years in jail.
He has been in custody for 190 days and St. Croix said he should be credited for that at time and half, for a total of 290 days to be deducted off his sentence.
Healey’s lawyer, Jamie Luscombe, suggested a sentence of four years as his was not the same level of involvement as Halfyard.
But there is a chance that Judge Wayne Gorman may impose a higher sentence as he noted a recent court of appeal ruling has suggested the range of sentence in these types of offences is four to nine years. He said the circumstances in this case are very aggravating and that Healey knew the shotgun was loaded and still participated fully while understanding the danger it presented.
Gorman will give his decision on sentencing on April 25.
Charges against the other two co-accuseds — Jared Healey, 21, and Dylan Ryan, 20 — are still before the court.
Jared Healey has a sentencing hearing set for June 7 on break and entry with intent to commit an offence. Ryan has elected trial by judge alone in the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador and has a preliminary inquiry scheduled for July 6 in provincial court.
