An armed robber captured in Lake Country by a police officer who noticed him speeding will spend more than four more years in prison.
Dylan Matthew Milroy, 21, was initially arrested in Manitoba after police entered a mobile home and found him in the back bedroom with a quarter-ounce of cocaine concealed in a jar on his bedside table, the precursors of the party drug ecstasy and a sawed off shotgun.
With only a brief juvenile criminal record to his name, and having cooperated with police, Milory was released pending a court date, and subsequently fled to the Okanagan with several buddies, launching what Judge Brad Chapman would describe this week as "somewhat of a spree of criminal activity."
Upon leaving Manitoba in early February 2012, he and one friend would break into a home and steal guitars to pawn for cash, and then use the money to finance a trip to Kelowna that would end in two armed robberies, one in West Kelowna and the other in Rutland.
Neither robbery earned more than a stash of cigarettes and $50 in cash.
Yet for as minimal the proceeds were, the impact for the victims was severe, the judge pointed out.
"I can't imagine how frightening it must have been for the clerk in the convenience store," said Chapman, noting the individual in the West Kelowna Mac's location, beside Friends Neighbourhood Pub, was severely affected.
That robbery occurred On Mar. 7, 2012 at 3:15 a.m. when the clerk inside the store was alone. Concealing their identities with bandanas, Milroy and his accomplice threatened the clerk with a sawed off shotgun that Milroy' kept tucked in his belt, making his point by lifting his shirt to show the convenience store employee. His accomplice brandished a knife and went behind the counter to make his threats.
The pair tried to destroy video evidence, ripped the landline phone cords from the walls and left with two cordless phones in order to prevent the clerk from contacting police.
Two days later, the robbers used a similar modus operandi to rob the Super-Save Gas in Rutland, again with minimal profit.
The resulting jail time Chapman laid out at sentencing Thursday was a combination of penalties for federal charges, relating to Milroy's offences in Manitoba, and provincial charges from the local offences, and took into account his guilty plea and cooperative approach to dealing with police.
Milroy will serve five years for the first armed robbery, the mandatory minimum sentence, and another year and half, to be served concurrently, for concealing his identity with a mask.
For the second robbery in Rutland, in which he did not personally carry a weapon, he is serving three years, though this time will also be served concurrently to the first, with another year of concurrent time for wearing a face mask.
For the offences which occurred in Manitoba, only the break and enter charges yielded additional time. For that offence, the young man received an additional six months over and above all of the other time, in no small part because the maximum penalty for this type of robbery is life in prison.
He also received 30 days for fleeing Manitoba with a court date pending, several months for the drug possession charges and the shotgun found in the trailer. All of that time will be served concurrently.
His lawyer, Michael Stephenson, said he will be attending various rehabilitation programs in jail and will continue work on a carpentry apprenticeship.
He has been in jail for ten months and received time and half for the wait until his court date, leaving his outstanding jail sentence at 50 months. He will be narrowing in on 26 years old when he is released.