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Wednesday, March 20, 2019 | Your community newspaper since 1916

Man jailed for guns, drugs Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca

CITIZEN PHOTO BY BRENT BRAATEN

Hip hop style Tallulah Mackereth competes in the 2019 Prince George Dance Festival at Vanier Hall on Tuesday afternoon. The festival runs until Friday.

Woman sentenced for grabbing young boy’s hand, leading him out of store Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff A Prince George woman who was found guilty of assault for grabbing the hand of a six-year-old boy she did not know and nearly leading him out of a local convenience store was sentenced Friday to a further one-and-a-half months in jail. Corina Lynn Beauchamp, 49, must also serve three years probation upon release, was ordered to provide a DNA sample and issued a 10-year firearms prohibition. Beauchamp had remained in custody since her arrest for the March 2018 incident. She had also faced a count of abduction but in issuing his verdict in October 2018, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Ron Tindale found Crown prosecution had not proved that charge beyond reasonable doubt. In doing so, he went over an odd set of circumstances that began when the boy, who was with his mother, began talking to the woman although she was a stranger while the two were at a hot chocolate vending machine.

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Beauchamp testified she was trying to find the boy’s mother but Tindale did not accept her story. Video evidence showed they walked right past the boy’s mother yet Beauchamp did not ask the woman if the boy was hers, he noted. When the mother was ready to leave, she looked around and could not see her son. She walked to the front door where she found Beauchamp and the boy. She called her son over and asked Beachamp what she was doing but could not remember the reply. They went home and, after a conversation with her father, she called police

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the next day. Beauchamp testified she was trying to find the boy’s mother but Tindale did not accept her story. Video evidence showed they walked right past the boy’s mother yet Beauchamp did not ask the woman if the boy was hers, he noted. However, Tindale also noted Beauchamp let go of the boy’s hand and remained in the store for some time afterwards, despite being banned from the location for previous trouble. Video showed Beachamp walking by the front entrance twice before entering while the clerk was looking the other way. She also returned to the store after the incident, which Tindale said shows Beauchamp was not following the two. On that basis, Tindale found Beauchamp not guilty of abduction. But he found Beauchamp intentionally applied force when she grabbed the boy’s hand without his consent and noted a power imbalance between an adult and a young boy. Beauchamp had no lawful reason to take control of the boy, Tindale said, and found her guilty of assault.

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A Prince George man was sentenced Tuesday to three years and nine months in jail for a trio of charges related to the discovery of a gun and some drugs. Less credit for time served prior to sentencing, Dylan Leslie Prince, 23, has a further two-and-a-half years to serve for the May 2018 incident that began when plain clothes RCMP driving an unmarked vehicle drove by a Nation Crescent home linked to the drug trade. They came across three men moving bags between vehicles with “great urgency,” the court was told. The trunk of one of the vehicles was open and, in plain view, police could see what appeared to be a stock for a rifle. The three – Prince, Craig Anthony Neidermayer and Ryan John Moore – were arrested and searched. On Prince, RCMP found an array of drugs, from marijuana and cocaine to heroine, fentanyl and methemphetamine. But the quantities fell short of the threshold for a trafficking charge and Prince eventually pleaded guilty to possessing controlled substances. The matter did not stop there. On the home’s lawn, about 20 feet away from the vehicles, was a sports bag. Police lacked reasonable cause to search the bag until Prince twice suggested they would be interested in it. Concerned about what they would find inside, police asked if it held a gun. Prince said yes and police subsequently pulled out a sawed-off shotgun, loaded with four shells. Four more shells were found inside the bag along with masks, balaclavas, gloves, bolt cutters and a pry bar, leading to a charge of possessing break-in instruments. Prince initially declined to say whose bag it was but eventually took responsibility for its ownership. On that matter, Prince pleaded guilty to possessing a prohibited firearm and possessing a firearm contrary to an order. The stock found in the vehicle turned out to be for a pellet gun and the bags they were transferring between vehicles were suitcases in which police found no evidence of criminal activity, the court was told. Neidermayer and Moore are both well known to the police and were the initial subject of their investigation. But charges against Moore were eventually stayed while Niedermayer was sentenced to time served for breaching a recognizance. Prince has a history of committing similar offences and in November 2016 he was sentenced to a further nine-and-a-half months in jail after RCMP discovered a cache of weapons in a car he was driving. The court was told Prince was doing well upon his release until he returned to Prince George and fell back in with his old crowd. He plans to stay away from this city upon his release, the court was told. Because the remainder of his latest sentence is greater than two years, it will be served in a federal facility. The charge of possessing break-in instruments was stayed. The sentence came by way of a joint submission from Crown and defence counsels.

Nominations sought for Healthier You Awards Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca The community is toasting the good health of good health. You can raise a glass, too. Nominations are flowing in for the Healthier You Awards, the annual set of trophies that honour the people and projects of our region that are making a difference in healthy living. The nominations close on Friday, so awards coordinator Norm Coyne is urging people to move quickly to spotlight the strong stories of the community. — see AWARDS, page 3

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