Pubdate: Sat, 06 Jun 2009
Source: Chronicle Herald (CN NS)
Copyright: 2009 The Halifax Herald Limited
Contact:  http://thechronicleherald.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/180
Author: Beverley Ware

TRAFFICKER'S HOUSE ARREST OVERTURNED ON APPEAL

Man Sentenced to 3 1/2 Years in Prison

BRIDGEWATER - The province's Appeal Court has overturned the house
arrest sentence handed to a Lunenburg County cocaine trafficker saying
it was "excessively lenient and demonstrably unfit," as well as illegal.

The panel of three justices then revoked the two-year house arrest
imposed on Neil Andrew Knickle and sentenced him to 3 1/2 years in
prison.

Mr. Knickle was charged with trafficking cocaine and careless storage
of a firearm after the RCMP searched his Lilydale home, just outside
Lunenburg, on August 8, 2007. They found 311.9 grams of cocaine worth
up to $31,000, three scales, 1,300 small baggies, a plate with cocaine
residue, a straw and a razor blade and 19 firearms, four that were
stored improperly.

His two teenage children were home at the time of the
raid.

Mr. Knickle pleaded guilty to the two charges.

On September 23, 2008, Bridgewater provincial court Judge Anne
Crawford sentenced him to two years' house arrest for the drug
trafficking charge, along with one month concurrent on the firearms
charge, to be followed by 12 months' probation.

The Crown appealed the sentence at a hearing in Halifax last
month.

The 13-page decision written by Justice Elizabeth Roscoe was released
Friday. It said the sentence given Mr. Knickle ignored Nova Scotia
sentencing standards that send cocaine traffickers to jail for at
least two years.

"This court has never approved or endorsed a conditional sentence on
charges of possession for the purpose of trafficking or trafficking in
cocaine," the decision said.

In fact, the court said it regularly overturns conditional sentences
for people who traffic in large amounts of marijuana and sends them to
jail, too.

Justice Roscoe said the trial judge relied on cases that had little to
do with Mr. Knickle's case to justify the lenient sentence. She writes
that Mr. Knickle had 400 times the amount of cocaine compared to the
accused in the case Judge Crawford said was most similar to his.

The decision also says the trial judge improperly ruled there were
exceptional circumstances to warrant the "extraordinarily lenient sentence."

At the original sentencing, Judge Crawford said there were several
mitigating factors in Mr. Knickle's case. The 43-year-old divorced
father of two children is an excellent parent, she said, with a good
reputation in the community. He has no criminal record and a Grade 9
education. He has financial difficulties because he lives in a house
worth $500,000, but has been unable to work as a fisherman since he
suffered a shoulder injury in 2004. The injury landed him on worker's
compensation.

Justice Roscoe wrote the sentence also gave little regard to the
sentencing principles of denunciation and deterrence.

The Appeal Court have given Mr. Knickle credit for nine months already
served on house arrest, so his remaining jail term is 33 months.

The 12-month probation imposed by Judge Crawford, along with an order
to provide a DNA sample, forfeit the drug paraphernalia and a handgun
and prohibiting him from owning firearms for ten years still stands.
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