12-year sentence sought for home invasion

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This article was published 19/11/2014 (3443 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba justice officials are seeking a 12-year prison sentence for a young man who sought revenge on a rival by committing a home invasion against his family.

Colin Bernardin-Hebert, 21, pleaded guilty to several charges stemming from the January 2013 attack in the Rural Municipality of Hanover.

He admits going to the victim’s home in the middle of the night while wearing a balaclava and armed with a gun. He was joined by two other masked, gun-toting co-accused. They knocked on the door of the 38-year-old female resident, then demanded the location of her 19-year-old son when she opened. The teen was not home.

What followed was nearly an hour of terror. The woman and her dog were both bear-maced in the face. She was forced to the ground with a shotgun pointed at her head and repeatedly threatened. The invaders ransacked her residence and stole property including a laptop computer, two televisions, guitars, gaming systems and other electronics. They even went into the bedroom of the woman’s six-year-old daughter, who was asleep, and stole her iPad, court was told.

“During the incident she was freaked out and feared for her life,” Crown attorney Tim Chudy said Thursday.

Bernardin-Hebert was described as the “directing mind” of the offence. He targeted the home because of a long-standing feud with the woman’s son, which included “pistol-whipping” the boy with the butt of his gun in an incident weeks earlier.

Bernardin-Hebert said their issues stem from previous drug dealings and included being a victim himself of a home invasion in which he was tied up and assaulted. No charges were ever laid because he refused to co-operate with police.

“I am remorseful for what I did. I was doing it out of rage and anger. I should have gone to the law,” Bernardin-Hebert said today in court. “I am ready to make a difference in my life and come out a better person.”

The Crown wants a 10-year sentence for the home invasion, plus a two-year consecutive penalty for the previous assault on the teen boy. Defence lawyer Barry Sinder is seeking a total of eight years behind bars for his client.

Queen’s Bench Justice Joan McKelvey has reserved her decision until next Monday afternoon.

Bernardin-Hebert has spent nearly two years in custody, which his lawyer wants credited at time-and-a-half of nearly three years. He has a prior criminal record as well as long-standing issues with drugs and alcohol, court was told.

Police were able to catch Bernardin-Hebert because the victim recognized his voice during the attack.

A co-accused pleaded guilty to his role early this year and was given an eight-year prison sentence. Zach Carver, 20, admitted holding the shotgun to the back of the woman’s head under orders from Bernardin-Hebert.

A third accused who was present during the incident ended up co-operating with police and the Crown as a key witness.