Fentanyl dealer asks not to be sent to prison

Article content

Telling a judge that his life has completely changed, a convicted fentanyl dealer and former addict pleaded guilty to not being sent to prison.

Article content

Beth Ann Vandelinder told Superior Court Judge Renee Pomerance at a sentencing hearing on Friday that all the progress she has made since her arrest more than four years ago, the “worst” moment of her life, could be in jeopardy. if they put her behind bars.

He has gone beyond 180 to change his life.

Arguing on his behalf, defense attorney Neil Rooke admitted that his client was guilty of importing for sale one of the most dangerous and addictive opioids on Canadian streets. However, now that he’s cleaned up, he’s back to work, he’s completing higher education, and he’s in a steady relationship, “he realizes … the impact (the fentanyl trade) on our community that was terrible and terrifying at the same time. “.

The defense urges that a two-year suspended sentence be served at home, followed by a period of probation, during which he must be ordered to attend therapy.

Article content

“She has gone beyond 180 to change her life,” Rooke said. Imprisonment, he added, risked Vandelinder “losing all the things that have helped her stay sober for the past four and a half years.”

Federal drug prosecutor Richard Pollock advocated a much harsher three-year prison sentence, saying the judge must take into account the terrible number of overdoses and deaths that fentanyl is causing in the local community.

He acknowledged the progress and positive changes in Vandelinder’s life, as well as his cooperation with the police, but said that without those factors the Crown would instead seek a prison sentence of between six and eight years.

“She engaged her family and her community,” Pollock said. Unlike many other fentanyl trafficking cases, he noted, the synthetic drug that Vanderlinder and his co-defendant allegedly handled was pure and unadulterated. “Importing (an illegal drug) is much more serious than trafficking,” he said.

Article content

Vandelinder and Mark John Ryn were 27 and 25 years old, respectively, when an RCMP investigation led to the couple’s arrest at Vandelinder’s Windsor home in 2017. The Canada Border Services Agency had intercepted a quantity of pure fentanyl in an envelope sent from China, and the police obtained judicial approval to make a “controlled delivery” to the residential address where the two were apprehended in February 2017.

Judge Pomerance imposed a publication ban on the media reporting on any details released during Friday’s sentencing hearing on Vandelinder’s co-defendant. A two-week jury trial is scheduled for next June for Ryn, charged with conspiracy to import fentanyl and possession for trafficking purposes.

Article content

Rooke, the defense attorney, said that Vandelinder, at the time of her arrest, had been “addicted to one of the most addictive drugs in our country.” Fentanyl “took almost everything from his life,” he added, asking the court for compassion.

Vandelinder, invited by Pomerance to speak, said that, looking back, “I felt a lot of shame, especially for my family.” She attended Friday’s hearing with a positive pre-sentencing report and glowing letters of reference, including from recent employers. She said that she is “always getting A” in her current college program and plans to pursue graduate school, and that she is in a relationship with “an amazing couple.”

Pomerance announces his sentencing decision on November 17.

[email protected]

twitter.com/schmidtcity