THUNDER BAY — A 72-year-old city man has received a sentence of two years in penitentiary for possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking, and for possessing money known to be the proceeds of crime.
Barry Keith Matthews was arrested by Thunder Bay Police in August 2015 after they executed a search warrant and forcibly entered a residence in the 400 block of West Arthur Street.
Officers seized 700 grams of cocaine with a street value of $71,000, as well as $2,475 in cash.
Matthews' lawyer applied to quash the search warrant the police used to search his house, and sought an order that the method of forceful entry used by the police violated the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
In September 2019, Superior Court justice Patrick Smith dismissed the application and convicted the man on both charges.
Sentence was handed down last month, after delays related partly to how COVID-19 affected the scheduling of court cases.
A pre-sentence report stated Matthews "was not remorseful nor did he regret the offence, other than the fact that he was arrested."
According to the same report, he told a friend that he regrets having trusted the people to whom he was selling cocaine because he was only selling in larger quantities and thought he could trust his buyers.
He also told her he believed cocaine was a business with a lot of money to be made, and that using cocaine is not harmful in "applied circumstances" such as social gatherings.
Matthews' lawyer asked for a suspended sentence and three years of probation on the basis of exceptional and collateral circumstances.
Mitigating and collateral factors included his advanced age, the fact he has several health issues, and that his life could be jeopardized by the high incidence of COVID-19 in the prison system.
He had one prior criminal conviction, in 1980, for trafficking in a narcotic.
The Crown submitted that none of the mitigating circumstances justified a conditional or suspended sentence, and that it would not be just to sentence Matthews to anything less than three years.
The pre-sentence report indicated the man refused offers from his doctor to get help with his addiction to alcohol, and to receive counselling.
"Rehabilitation cannot occur," Justice Smith said in his decision, "unless an individual is prepared to acknowledge they need help and cooperate when it is available. Mr. Matthews has shown that the prospects for rehabilitation are poor."
In sentencing him to two years plus one day in a federal penitentiary, Justice Smith said that while he had sympathy for Matthews, given his age and personal circumstances, "the protection of society requires that general deterrence and denunciation be the paramount principles that must be applied in serious cases which involve the commercial trafficking and sale of cocaine and other dangerous drugs."
Asked on Monday whether the sentence might be appealed, Matthews' lawyer declined to comment.
