Judge considers five-year sentence, house arrest for robber

For the last 20 years, Perry Shayne Ring’s crimes have been fuelled by addiction.

“That’s why he is here today,” Ring’s lawyer, Trevor Burgess, said Wednesday in court in Peterborough as he advocated for Justice Jennifer Broderick to give Ring a lenient sentence.

At an earlier court date, Ring pleaded guilty to two counts of robbery with weapon in connection with a robbery at a Hunter Street East convenience store on Christmas Day 2019 and another knifepoint robbery two weeks later at a Clonsilla Avenue convenience store.

At the time, Ring was homeless, living on the floor of trap houses and using hydromorphone, crack cocaine and fentanyl. According to Burgess’s sentencing submissions, Ring held up the stores for lottery tickets, cigarettes and cash because he needed money to pay for drugs.

Burgess told the court that Ring is clear and candid about how fentanyl had a grip on his life. However, Burgess said his client has been sober since his arrest and has taken positive steps toward rehabilitation.

“It (incarceration) would be such a significant step back,” Burgess said.

Following his arrest, Ring was held in pre-sentence custody at the Central East Correctional Centre in Lindsay between Jan. 7 and March 24, 2020. Due to COVID-19 concerns at correctional facilities, Ring was released on strict bail terms but was allowed out once to speak at an International Overdose Awareness Day event.

At the event, he spoke about his struggles with addictions, and losing his mother and many friends to overdoses.

“I think it meant a lot to him,” Burgess explained.

Burgess said Ring, 36, has strong support from his sister and father as well as a roofing job available to him. He said his client has a willingness to participate in the relapse prevention program at Fourcast and has stable housing if he should be sentenced to house arrest.

When advocating for a lengthy conditional sentence (house arrest with strict conditions) for Ring, Burgess asked Broderick to take those issues into consideration. Until recently, a conditional sentence wasn’t available for serious offences like robbery with a weapon, but a 2020 Supreme Court of Canada decision ruled that eliminating conditional sentences offends Charter rights.

“This is about him wanting to break the cycle of addiction,” Burgess said when he requested the conditional sentence.

The Crown is of the position that Ring be sentenced to five years in the penitentiary. In his submissions, assistant Crown attorney Arjun Rudra said convenience store robberies are serious offences as they prey on underpaid store clerks who work long hours and are vulnerable because they work through the night alone.

Although neither store clerk wishes to enter a victim impact statement, Rudra said the judge could appreciate the psychological harms one would face after being robbed at knifepoint. Rudra also noted Ring’s significant criminal record.

“It isn’t his first rodeo,” Rudra said. “Mr. Ring should have got the message in 2016 (sentenced to federal prison for a similar crime).”

Ring is scheduled to return to court June 21 when Broderick is expected to sentence him.