Fish Hatchery Road firearm incident lands man in jail

Richard Maki will be spending his weekends in jail for the next while after pleading guilty Monday to gun-related offences that occurred last summer during a confrontation with another man.

The 60-day intermittent sentence was imposed after he pleaded guilty to possession of a dangerous weapon (a .22-calibre, bolt action rifle), possession of the rifle without a licence, storing the weapon in an unsafe manner with ammunition readily accessible, uttering a threat and breach of a recognizance.

With the credit of 1.5 days he received for each day of the 39 he spent in pre-sentence custody, the sentence is the equivalent of a four-month jail term.

Maki, 54, will be on probation for 18 months after he does his time.

Ontario Court Justice Melanie Dunn heard another resident of a Fish Hatchery Road trailer park confronted the accused at his home on July 17 because he thought Maki had been involved in a break-in at his place in 2016.

Maki came out of the residence, carrying the firearm, and the complainant asked if he was going to shoot him, assistant Crown attorney Heidi Mitchell said.

When the accused replied "it is filled with buckshot," the man left and called police.

Officers located the rifle, leaning against a wall in the kitchen, without a trigger lock, and ammunition on a table.

An examination of the gun revealed the bolt action was broken, the prosecutor told the court.

The recognizance breach (for communicating with the complainant) occurred Aug. 1 when Maki drove by the man's residence, and called him a "f***ing nut" as he made a gesture with his hand.

Mitchell told the judge the joint sentencing submission was the result of "fairly extensive discussions" between the lawyers.

"There are a number of aggravating factors — pointing the firearm and threatening — and the manner it was stored is concerning," she said.

"It was an inoperable firearm," Walker said, asking that his client be permitted to serve the sentence intermittently — from Friday at 8 p.m. to Sunday at noon.

Calling the guilty pleas mitigating, he suggested "the issue was the operating aspect of the gun."

Maki's "actions were motivated by a gentleman who was not all friendly," Walker added.

The defence said Maki's common-law spouse "was in a state of fear" and "believed there was some threatening towards her." 

He noted a "significant" gap of 11 years in Maki's criminal record, suggesting it "makes him almost an all new person."

Maki told the court he was just trying to protect his family,  and that he was "sorry for going about it the way I did."

When she imposed the sentence, Dunn also banned Maki from possessing weapons for 10 years and ordered him to provide a sample for the national DNA database.

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