A woman accused in a home invasion was released from custody after a show-cause hearing during provincial court proceedings on Monday.
Ayla Dawn Lynn Schachtel, who was charged with break and enter, and committing assault with a weapon, will not be allowed within 50 kilometres of Estevan as a condition of her release. A publication ban was ordered for evidence given during the show-cause hearing, but information previously obtained by the Mercury alleges that a knife and sledgehammer were used in the Nov. 27 incident.
The occupants of the house were not seriously injured during the incident, but the family's dog was struck with the sledgehammer and suffered extensive injury to its head.
Schachtel will be back in court Feb. 2. The two males accused in this matter remain in custody and will appear in court on Thursday for show-cause hearings.
As the result of a Court of Queen's Bench trial on Dec. 13, Phillip Mullins was found guilty of possessing crack cocaine and marijuana for the purposes of trafficking. Mullins was originally arrested during a drug raid in Estevan Aug. 25, 2010. At his arrest about $60,000 of drugs and cash were seized.
In other court proceedings, Regina resident Kamilya Kozenko pleaded guilty to two counts of driving while impaired. Both charges came from Nov. 12 when Kozenko was arrested twice within about four hours.
She was first picked up in Estevan and failed the road-side breath test. When she was taken to Estevan Police Service building her readings were 0.190, almost two and a half times the legal limit.
The 24-year-old was later released and when the arresting officer went back to the area where Kozenko's car had been left he noticed it was gone, said Crown prosecutor Chris White.
She was found driving home near Macoun, and White said she was "less than impressed" with being pulled over a second time.
Because Kozenko had no previous record, the Crown was treating the incident as a first conviction. He noted that aggravating factors were her high blood-alcohol level and the fact that she offended twice in four hours.
Judge Karl Bazin sentenced her with fines of $3,000 and two-one year driving suspensions that will run concurrently.
Kevin Jahn was also in custody on Monday and pleaded guilty to a multitude of charges. Jahn had charges of theft, fraud and break and enter stemming from several incidents in the last four months.
He most recently stole his father's credit card and made seven purchases of electronic goods in 24 hours in Estevan totalling $3,407.14. Those items were later sold to others and the profit he gained was used to support a drug habit, White told the court. On Dec. 6, he also stole about $130 worth of merchandise from Canadian Tire, though some of those items were returned.
A pair of charges from October come from an incident in which he stole gas from a residence outside of Estevan. On Nov. 16, Jahn was charged with break and enter when he entered some houses in Roche Percee.
White said Jahn "chose to victimize those who have already been victimized," noting that the houses he entered were damaged as a result of the spring flooding. He took cans and bottles from the houses and turned them into SARCAN.
Jahn received a 12-month conditional sentence, to be served in the community, with conditions that include a curfew from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. No restitution was ordered for the $3,400 spent on his father's credit card.
A trial for an Estevan youth charged with possessing marijuana went ahead on Monday. The youth was a passenger in a car where two bags of marijuana were found, the court heard.
Testimony from arresting EPS officers found the weight of the two bags to be either 8.5 grams or 9.5 grams. The officer gave two numbers, but the federal Crown prosecutor said the difference in weight didn't matter much to the trial.
The Crown said the youth was guilty via constructive possession.
Represented by his father, the youth's argument was that the marijuana possession law should be declared dead. He said thousands of cases have been withdrawn and cited a Supreme Court of Canada case involving Mernoff of 2010 for Bazin to look at.
The Crown said the defence is referring to the Marihuana Medicinal Access Regulations which allow for exemptions for people with a licence. He noted that the MMAR didn't apply in this case because the youth didn't have a licence.
Bazin reserved his decision to Jan. 30.
