Meth trafficking leads to 30-month sentence
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 27/03/2017 (2558 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
With human-trafficking accusations behind him, a Winnipeg man has taken responsibility for trafficking in methamphetamine.
Clinton Wirffel, 31, was given a 30-month drug-trafficking sentence, in court Tuesday. Police had caught him with about $2,250 worth of meth. He was arrested more than a year ago on a warrant for a human-trafficking investigation involving three others, including Tina Fontaine’s cousin, Jeanenne Fontaine, 29. Fontaine was killed earlier this month; she was shot in the head and her home was set on fire. No charges have yet been laid in her death and police have not released information about any suspects. Wirffel was in custody at the time of her death.
The human-trafficking charges against Wirffel ultimately were dropped, but the allegations were “weighing heavily on him” by the time police found him with the drugs, his defence lawyer, Eric Wishnowski, told Court of Queen’s Bench Justice David Kroft Tuesday. Police arrested Wirffel July 3, 2015, after finding him playing VLTs at the Norwood Hotel on Marion Street.
“Mr. Wirffel was somewhat at wit’s end. He had been using methamphetamine. He had known that there was a warrant out for his arrest,” but didn’t turn himself in because of his negative history with the police, Wishnowski said.
“He was one of a number of co-accused. It was weighing heavily on him that he was being linked in this type of offence,” he continued.
Police found Wirffel with a backpack containing 15 baggies of meth, a digital scale, more plastic baggies and three cell phones. He pleaded guilty to the drug charge even though his defence lawyer said there were issues with continuity of the video surveillance and questions could have been raised about whether the backpack was truly in his possession.
Wirffel told Justice Kroft he had never used meth until just prior to his arrest, but he said he’s not trying to “minimize” what he did wrong.
“I just want to put this behind me and move forward with my life,” he said.
Wirffel entered his guilty plea Feb. 21 to possession for the purpose of trafficking. Crown and defence lawyers reached a plea bargain, recommending the 30-month sentence to Justice Kroft, who imposed it Tuesday. Wirffel now has 19 months left to serve behind bars.
His twin brother, Eric Wirffel, previously was sentenced to two years in prison for receiving a material benefit from sexual services after he pleaded guilty for his role in the human-trafficking case. The case involves a 17-year-old girl who allegedly was plied with drugs and forced into the sex trade. It centres on a Furby Street residence where 15-year-old Tina Fontaine had stayed before going missing and being found dead in the Red River in August 2014.
The Crown stayed human-trafficking-related charges against Clinton Wirffel after a preliminary inquiry last June. Tina’s cousin Jeanenne pleaded guilty to advertising sexual services and was released last December on time served with a sentence of 323 days.
Another co-accused, Jesse Thomas, is headed to trial in September.
katie.may@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @thatkatiemay
Katie May
Reporter
Katie May is a general-assignment reporter for the Free Press.