A Nanaimo man convicted for a July 2012 shooting will have to wait until September to see how long his sentence will be.
Jeffrey Ryan Oud, 38, was found guilty of mischief, endangering life and unlawfully discharging a firearm at a house in downtown Nanaimo.
In B.C. Supreme Court on Tuesday, Judge Robin Baird ruled that a mandatory minimum sentence of four years facing Oud was unconstitutional, contrary to a section in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms that states no one shall be subjected to cruel and unusual punishment.
Crown counsel is expected to argue against that in September, which prevented the sentence from being handed down. However, seeing as close to three years have passed, and the fact Baird said Oud was exposed to a jail sentence, he was taken into custody to begin jail time.
“The argument was that four years as a minimum is unjust,” said Bert King, Oud’s legal counsel. “It may well be that in a case like this, four years is appropriate without a minimum and I think that’s what Justice Baird [was] saying in that courtroom.”
King said how much time his client is credited for will be determined in September.
“Because this is what’s called ‘dead time,’ in the sense that it’s prior to sentencing, he may get time-and-a-half, because it’s harder time when you go down to a prison and await your sentence ... basically you’re stuck in a giant, sort of 10-room condo, and you’re not leaving but for an hour a day to go out into a cement area and play basketball or walk around, so it’s harder time,” said King.
Lesley Ruzicka and Basil McCormick, Crown counsellors, didn’t wish to comment until the case was concluded.
The court heard that at the time of the incident, Oud was an addict, looking to buy drugs and was ripped off of money. He subsequently fired seven rounds from a rifle at the house.
A bullet grazed the cheek of a person inside the house, but no one else was injured.