Convicted local armed robber Andrew Stevenson has been given a ten year jail term.
The 35 year old learned his fate in Nelson court Wednesday. The ten year term is close to what the Crown had sought for the multiple offences committed over a 7 week period in Nelson and Castlegar early last year.
In his reasons for sentence provincial court judge Richard Hewson said he’d considered many factors.
These included the pre-meditated nature of the armed hold-ups of various financial institutions and a store,the use of a sawed off shotgun and the extreme danger that put the public in.
In mitigation the judge considered Stevenson’s long addiction to oxycodone and morpheme to ease his lifetime of arthritic pain and acknowledged the crimes were motivated by this addiction not greed.
Stevenson will serve an actual 8 years and 4 months as he’s been credited 20 months for time in custody.
His partner Krista Kalmikoff – who played a role in the crimes- is expected to go on trial later this year.