Kenneth Brown
of The Clarion
Kaitlynn McCorriston of Kindersley has been taken to a federal penitentiary to serve a prison term of two-and-a-half years for trafficking controlled drugs.
McCorriston was sentenced at provincial court in Kindersley on April 17. Facts of the case were heard during a trial on Jan. 9 and, although she was found guilty by a provincial court judge, her sentencing was moved to April to allow time for a pre-sentence report (PSR) to be obtained.
Judge Robert Jackson, who presided over the trial, said he only received the PSR a day before McCorriston was to be sentenced. Denis Quon, the federal Crown prosecutor for the case, said he received the PSR a week before the sentencing.
The accused was found guilty of three counts of possessing a controlled substance for the purpose of trafficking. Quon said McCorriston possessed 23.5 pills of fentanyl, and amounts of cocaine and methamphetamine to warrant trafficking charges in each case.
McCorriston was living in a trailer in Kindersley with Jesse Ouimet – who is also serving a sentence of two and a half years for charges related to trafficking – when police conducted a search of the trailer. The Crown focused on the working relationship between McCorriston and Ouimet.
Quon had obtained text messages as a result of the police investigation. Ouimet admitted to receiving text messages from the accused woman to suggest that they were partners in a drug trafficking operation at the residence.
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The case was complicated by McCorriston moving out of the trailer a day before the police executed the search warrant. Court heard that the relationship between Ouimet and McCorriston had deteriorated. Police found money, drugs and a gun in the room belonging to Ouimet, and scales and score sheets in McCorriston’s room.
A score sheet is a list of people who owe money for drugs. The gun charges were dropped against both individuals, but Quon was able to prove to the court that the accused woman was in fact selling controlled substances from the residence.
Investigators also had video surveillance of the trailer showing several people coming and going from the residence in what was consistent with drug trafficking. The evidence included testimony from six Crown witnesses such as police and known acquaintances of McCorriston.
At the sentencing on April 23, Quon said it is the opinion of the Crown that McCorriston could be considered a drug queen behind a commercial trafficking operation. He said Ouimet was only a minion in the drug trafficking operation and he received two and a half years in prison as result of his involvement.
The Crown presented case law as part of a position on sentencing and Quon suggested that for the role McCorriston played in the business, along with the serious types of substances she had in her possession, she should get a minimum of three years in prison.
He noted that the accused attempted to defend herself by blaming things on Ouimet, so he questioned the level of remorse for what she had done. Quon provided a Facebook message to the court as an exhibit during sentencing.
Rylund Hunter, McCorriston’s defence lawyer, was unaware of the Facebook message, but he spoke to his client about it and she admitted to the message. Quon said the message showed her attitude toward what she had been doing and the people around her.
The defence lawyer presented an argument that his client was involved in a small scale drug trafficking operation to support her own drug addition. She said it is clear that she is an addict, so she was selling drugs in order to continue using drugs.
Hunter also referred to a new direction from a decision by the Court of Appeal in British Columbia. He said the province’s Court of Appeal has ruled that exceptional circumstances are able to be presented in drug trafficking cases to determine if a non-custodial sentence is more appropriate in certain cases.
He suggested to the court that McCorriston is taking steps to turn her life around, is showing remorse for her actions, is working casually, has no criminal record, is still considered to be a young person at 26 years of age.
Hunter said the exceptional circumstances in the response should suggest a long period of probation in the area of three years. He said community service would also be appropriate. The mother of the accused made a plea to ask the court to consider the steps her daughter is taking to turn things around.
Jackson said there are sentences he does not enjoy handing out to offenders. He said he must side with decisions made by the Court of Appeal in Saskatchewan and the province’s Court of Appeal has ruled that trafficking of the deadly fentanyl has to be discouraged.
The judge ordered McCorriston to serve a custodial sentence of 30 months in prison to be served in a federal penitentiary. A forfeiture order was made for the drugs and $9,500 found at the residence, and she was ordered to provide a DNA sample. McCorriston opted for serving six extra days in prison instead of paying $600 in victim surcharges.
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