Appeals court disagrees with generator thief. Jail sentence not too long

The 45-month prison term a Sault Ste. Marie judge imposed for Ronald Marini's theft of a $172 generator from a local business has been upheld by the province's highest court.

In a decision released Thursday, the Ontario Court of Appeal dismissed his appeal of the conviction and sentence he received three years ago after he was found guilty of a single count of break and enter to commit the indictable offence of theft.

Pointing to Marini's lengthy criminal record that dates back more than 30 years and includes 70-plus convictions, many for break and enters, the court concluded the term of imprisonment ordered by Superior Court Justice Larry Whalen was a fit sentence.

It rejected Marini's contention that a 45-month global sentence for a theft that caused total damage (stolen generator and repaired window) of less than $500 was too harsh. 

Marini appealed both his conviction and the sentence Whalen imposed in June 2013 at a hearing Monday in Toronto.

The break-in to the business was recorded on a video security camera which showed a man breaking a storefront window, entering the store and leaving with the generator, valued at $172.37.

The man's head and face were covered and he wore gloves. 

When city police officers responded to the break-in the following morning, one noticed blood on the frame of the door with the broken window.

The officer thought the blood was "fresh" and it was sent for DNA testing, which revealed that there was one in 8.2 quadrillion chance that the blood wasn't Marini's.

Marini didn't testify at his trial. 

Whalen convicted him after concluding the blood found on the door and identified as Marini's was rationally and logically linked to the circumstances of the break and enter.

He sentenced the offender to 45 months incarceration, less a nine-month credit for pre-trial custody.

"Under the umbrella of unreasonable verdict," Marini appealed the conviction on four grounds, including the contention the judge erred in convicting him without any evidence tying him to the crime.

The appeal court disagreed, noting his blood was on the frame of the door with the window that been broken by the thief.

"The police testimony was that the blood appeared to be fresh. This is hardly no evidence," the three-member panel of judges said in its decision. 

As well, Marini didn't testify and offer any explanation why his blood was at the crime scene.

"The conviction was an entirely reasonable verdict," it concluded.

This is not the first time Marini's DNA, which is on file in a national database, has connected him to a break-in.

In 2009, his blood was identified on items recovered by police after a safe was stolen from the Batchewana First Nation band office two years earlier.

A sock discovered on the floor of a Second Line West business where an attempt was made to steal an ATM in May 2006 had Marini's DNA on it.