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Eric Mearow admits to having loaded handgun, brass knuckles

He was arrested just weeks after serving a sentence for the role he played in the 2011 Wesley Hallam slaying
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The Sault Ste. Marie Courthouse is pictured in this file photo. Michael Purvis/SooToday

Eric Mearow will do time in a federal penitentiary after admitting his guilt Wednesday on four weapons-related charges stemming from a January city police raid of an apartment where he was residing.

Superior Court Justice Edward Gareau sentenced him to 42 months imprisonment - a custodial term jointly recommended by the Crown and defence.

With the credit he received for pre-sentence custody of 11 months (the standard 1.5 days for each day in jail), he faces a further 25 months, two weeks behind bars.

Mearow, 33, was convicted of possession of a loaded, restricted firearm, possession of a prohibited weapon (brass knuckles), and possession of a firearm (.22-calibre handgun) while prohibited from doing so.

As well, he pleaded guilty to breach of an undertaking for failing to comply with a condition that he not reside anywhere with firearms, weapons, ammunition and explosive devices.

The court heard city police emergency service unit officers, along with other members of the Sault Ste. Marie Police Service, executed a search warrant at the Simpson Street residence.

Mearow answered the door when they stopped by the apartment at 3 a.m. on Jan. 11.

He was arrested along with a number of other people who were there.

During the search, police located rounds of ammunition scattered throughout the apartment and brass knuckles with a dagger point in a bedroom, prosecutor Dana Peterson said.

The "most significant" find was an older, wooden-handled, .22-calibre handgun with one live round in the chamber and nine additional rounds in the magazine, the assistant Crown attorney said.

It was discovered on a high shelf in the kitchen.

Peterson said the firearm was tested at the Foresenic Sciences lab, where it was determined to be operable.

Mearow's DNA also was found on the gun.

The Crown noted the offences occurred while Mearow was on bail and had three court-ordered weapon prohibitions.

When he was arrested, Mearow had just been released from custody a few weeks earlier (Dec. 1), after serving a sentence for the role he had played in the January 2011 slaying of Wesley Hallam.

Mearow was one of three men convicted of manslaughter in the 29-year-old man's death and decapitation.

He was on a bail document, while he awaited a court hearing on a Crown application for a peace bond that would impose strict conditions on him.

Peterson called it an aggravating factor that Mearow was not only on bail with conditions not to possess firearms or be in a residence with them, but on the other orders at the time.

The guilty pleas are mitigating, she said, telling Gareau there were triable issues, surrounding the search warrant and the information to obtain it.

Defence counsel Ariel Herscovitch agreed, calling those issues "significant."

Gareau also imposed a lifetime firearms prohibition and ordered the forfeiture of the weapons and ammunition seized by police.

Seven other charges on the 11-count indictment faced by Mearow were withdrawn at the request of the Crown.

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About the Author: Linda Richardson

Linda Richardson is a freelance journalist who has been covering Sault Ste. Marie's courts and other local news for more than 45 years.
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