Record 19 year sentence for home invasion

I'm posting this story for two reasons.

1) Because the judge in this case ACTUALLY GETS IT, unlike many of his collegues in this country... he has "thrown the book" at this man, who viciously beat a man in his own home to within an inch of his life, caused the victim and his family immense grief, and changed the victim's life forever, all because he and his buddies attacked the wrong freaking house, and

2) Because the victim in this story is the older brother of several good friends of mine.

(I will give credit to the young man sentenced... it takes a man to own up when you screw up, and he offered an appology... cudos to him for that)

Record sentence for home invader
GuelphMercury.com - News - Record sentence for home invader
John Sargeant given 19 years

SCOTT TRACEY
MERCURY STAFF

GUELPH

The longest home invasion sentence in Canadian history was handed down yesterday in a Guelph courtroom.

"This moves the yardstick forward," Crown attorney Jocelyn Speyer said outside court after 31-year-old John Sargeant was handed a 19-year prison term. "It's the highest one I've found. I'm not aware of a longer (home invasion) sentence."

Sargeant pleaded guilty to several counts, including aggravated assault and break and enter to commit robbery, in relation to a vicious home invasion on Simcoe Street more than two years ago.

Court heard at the time he was an inmate at a federal halfway house in Toronto, having been sent there a month earlier from Kingston Penitentiary where he was serving time for assault and firearms charges. Sargeant signed out of the halfway house just after 9 a.m. on April 12, 2005, purportedly to go to work in Burlington, but instead drove to Guelph where he met up with two other men before heading to Simcoe Street.

Court heard he was recruited for the home invasion by Guelph native Jesse Tucker, who had earlier met Sargeant when they were both serving time in Kingston. Tucker thought they were targeting the home of a drug trafficker and intended to steal drugs, cash and guns. The wrong home was pointed out by a local drug user.

Tucker, 27, pleaded guilty last month to the same charges and was sentenced to 14 years in prison.

Sargeant participated in the home invasion, which left one man clinging to life, and signed back into the halfway house six minutes before his 10:30 p.m. curfew, Speyer told Justice Bruce Durno in Guelph's Superior Court.

Court heard the trio showed up at the home of Joe Jansen and Lucas Hawdon, who were not involved in using or dealing drugs.

Between 8:30 and 9 p.m., Jansen answered the doorbell and was met by a stranger, who asked for someone who did not live in the home. When the man tried to force his way inside Jansen grabbed him and called for Hawdon's help.

The pair was confronted by two more intruders. One of these men held a sword toward Hawdon's face and forced the two men to go back into the home and lie down on the floor.

The intruders demanded to know where the drugs and cash were, to which Hawdon and Jansen insisted the men were in the wrong house. The victims' ankles and wrists were bound behind their backs and Jansen was beaten until he could no longer speak.

During the rampage, Hawdon saw the muzzle of a rifle and one of the assailants said, "Let's just kill them."

Before fleeing with some of the men's personal property, the intruders removed the home's phones as the victims lay unconscious on the floor.

When Hawdon awoke, he cut his hands free with a steak knife from the kitchen and then checked on his friend, who was unresponsive and lying with his head in a pool of blood. He was having trouble breathing and sometimes not breathing at all.

Jansen was airlifted to a Toronto hospital where he was admitted in critical condition. He had sustained a severe brain injury and severe chest trauma, including two punctured lungs, as well as serious facial injuries that required seven metal plates to be inserted into his face and head.

He was in a coma for several weeks and spent more than five months in hospital.

During Tucker's plea hearing last month, court heard Jansen had begun job retraining with his employer, a local Linamar company.

But yesterday his father, Bill Jansen, testified he met recently with representatives of Linamar and a company monitoring his son's progress.

Bill Jansen said his son's training program has been cancelled because company officials do not believe he can do his job due to short-term memory loss.

"His short-term memory deficiency is a life sentence that severely handicaps all his future potential," Bill Jansen said.

Durno was asked to accept a 19-year sentence jointly suggested by Speyer and defence counsel Philip Klumak.

The prosecutor noted Sargeant has been in prison since 1998 for various crimes of violence, including a 20-month sentence for an aggravated assault in Kitchener in 2006.

In the Kitchener incident, Sargeant was also a federal inmate serving the balance of his sentence under community supervision.

In asking Durno to accept the unprecedented sentence, Speyer said the focus must be on protecting the public as Sargeant has proven himself beyond rehabilitation.

Security at court was extremely tight yesterday. Sargeant's feet were shackled together and his hands were cuffed to a wide leather belt around his waist. He was brought into court by six members of the Guelph Police tactical team while another half-dozen police officers sat in the courtroom.

After the judge imposed the sentence, Sargeant offered an apology to Jansen and his parents, and Hawdon, who were seated three rows behind him. Sargeant said he has done "a lot of dumb things" in his life, "but these two men have nothing to do with the lifestyle I've lived the last 20 years.

"I understand the hatred they feel toward me," Sargeant told the judge, "because I'd feel the same way if this happened to my children."

Outside court Bill Jansen said it is difficult to feel relief with charges outstanding against a third suspect, who will be back in court later this month to set a trial date.

"We're a little closer to... hopefully putting this behind us once and for all," Bill Jansen said.

stracey@guelphmercury.com