Restaurant robber gets jail time
A provincial court judge on Monday served up a two-year jail term for the second of two men who admitted to the armed robbery of an all-night eatery in Prince George.
Terrance Aaron Abraham, 27, was sentenced on the single count of robbery in connection with the hold-up at the Denny's restaurant on Central Street. He had five other related charges dropped in exchange for the guilty plea.
Court heard that around 3 a.m. on Nov. 19, 2010, two men, who were wearing masks and carrying a knife and a machete, burst into Denny's and demanded cash from a waitress.
"The waitress said at first she thought it was a joke, until she saw the knives," said Crown counsellor Geoffrey McDonald.
She complied, and the men grabbed about $500 then fled the area in an older-model pickup. Police were called and set up a perimeter.
Not long afterwards, a Mountie spotted two men on foot who matched the suspects' descriptions and weren't dressed for the -20 C weather, so they were detained, McDonald said. The truck was also found, and a police dog established a track from the men to the truck, from which Mounties recovered the knife and machete.
A search of Abraham turned up $360 stuffed into his underwear, said McDonald, and "mixed in with the cash were receipts from the Denny's restaurant."
Defence counsel Ben Levine said his client was "severely" addicted to crystal meth at the time of the offence.
"It doesn't excuse him, but it does give you some context," Levine told the judge, adding his client has a job waiting for him in the construction industry when he gets out of jail.
Abraham, dressed in baggy, red prison garb and sporting a shaved head and long patch of hair on his chin, apologized to the court.
"I take full responsibility for my action," he said. "I'm not proud of what I did."
Judge Daniel Weatherly went along with two lawyers' joint submission of a two-year jail term for what he called a "very dangerous, very brazen" robbery.
Abraham received six months' credit for time served. Once released from jail, he'll serve an additional three years on probation. Terms of that order prevent him from having any contact with the waitress who was robbed, and from going near the Denny's.
"They might get spooked if they see him around there," Weatherly said of the restaurant's employees, adding they "have a right to a sense of security."
Court heard co-accused Joseph Donald West received a four-year jail term for his early guilty plea back in December, but that, unlike Abraham, he had a prior robbery conviction on his record.
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