A man with a history of serious violent crimes made his case for a lenient sentence on his most recent charges Friday, acknowledging his behaviour had been “nasty.”
“It’s beyond nasty,” Judge James Walsh told Dwight Saunders sternly in response.
Saunders was convicted of uttering threats and criminal harassment, having pleaded guilty. Other charges — including charges of sexual assault and choking — were withdrawn by the Crown, either due to a low chance of conviction or as part of a plea deal.
Saunders, 31, had been arguing with the woman over text messages Jan. 5 and showed up at her C.B.S. home in the middle of that night. After she texted a friend to come over as soon as possible, Saunders took her phone and texted the friend again, pretending to be the woman and saying, “It’s ok, it’s nothing, I’m in bed, sorry. I’ll call you in the morning.”
When the woman tried to use her landline, Saunders ripped it from the wall. He eventually left after the woman paid for his ride home, but began calling and texting her again shortly thereafter, telling her that he shouldn’t have left and would come back and kick the door in.
Crown prosecutor Robin Singleton presented to the court more than 300 text messages taken from the woman’s phone that night. Almost 10,000 text messages had been retrieved in total — sent and received from the phone in the preceding two weeks, Singleton said.
“I’ll kill all ye,” Saunders wrote, accusing the woman of lying about having a man in the house with her. Other text messages sent by Saunders were, “You won’t live long,” “You walk and I will ruin you,” and, “Watch when your door is kicked in.”
“You’ll never learn unless I murder someone or kill myself,” he wrote in another message.
In another one: “I’ll murder everyone in the house.”
Singleton noted Saunders knew the woman’s two children, one of them a baby, were in the home asleep at the time.
Saunders also tried calling the woman 50 times.
The woman texted a friend and asked her to call 911. Saunders was arrested around 5:30 in the morning Jan. 6.
“When Mr. Saunders threatens to kill everyone in the house, there’s a possibility that might happen,” Singleton said. “We need a sentence that will deter and protect the public, including (the woman). You can imagine how horrifying it would be to be in the position (she) was in, with two children in the house.”
Singleton argued for a jail sentence of between 15 and 18 months followed by two years of probation, saying Saunders was on parole at the time of the offences and has a serious criminal record.
In 2010, he was convicted by a jury of sexually assaulting a physically disabled woman during a party at her apartment. Four years ago he pleaded guilty to charges in relation to a standoff with police at a house on Thorburn Road. Saunders had held a loaded shotgun to his head and threatened to shoot himself unless his mother gave him money. She refused, and called police.
Saunders told the court at that time he had been overcoming a cocaine addiction, but “let (my) guard down” and “fell back into it,” resulting in the standoff.
On Friday, he told Judge Walsh something similar, saying he had taken drugs the night of the incident and couldn’t remember some of the text messages he had sent.
“Just jealousy and stuff got the better of me,” Saunders said. “I make stupid decisions sometimes.”
“You certainly didn’t think about your victim,” Walsh said.
“I think about her all the time,” Saunders replied.
Saunders’ lawyer, Amanda Barfitt, argued for a jail term of four months, saying the incident had been short-lived. She said Saunders has plans to continue counselling and acknowledges a period of supervised probation would be good for him.
Walsh will deliver his sentencing decision May 24.
Twitter: @tara_bradbury
