GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY | Vernon man shares Canadian spirit while helping out at Olympics in London [A6]
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Friday, August 10, 2012
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Guilty plea in syringe robbery
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Urged on by their officers and staff, cadets from Alpha Training Group showed the best combination of teamwork and strength, winning the annual tug of war against the other groups at the Vernon Army Cadet Camp.
A man who threatened to rob a Vernon gas station with a syringe will stay in jail. Jason Justin Johnson, 30, pleaded guilty in Vernon Provincial Court to one count of armed robbery. He was sentenced to 42 months in jail, though he was given six months credit for time already served. Johnson was also given a lifetime firearms prohibition and must provide a DNA sample. On Feb. 15, just before 10 p.m., the night clerk at the Blue Moon Esso on 34th Street called police to report a robbery. A lone man entered the store, said it was a robbery, threatened the clerk with a syringe and demanded money from the register. He left on foot. Police checked out the store’s surveillance tapes and found a suspect matching the description of the robber a short time later near the Staples parking lot.
DNA evidence leads to 25-year term VIKKI HOPES
her apartment, pushed her into the suite, locked the door and sexually assaulted her. DNA evidence has led to the conviction in The victim bit Poirier’s wrist during the New York of a man previously attack and drew blood, which was found guilty of a sexual assault later collected by investigators at the in Abbotsford and wanted for scene and entered into the New York crimes in Vernon. State DNA databank. Greg Simon Poirier, 39, was The sample at first did not match sentenced on Monday (Aug. any existing DNA profiles. The case 6) to 25 years in prison, folremained unsolved until Poirier’s lowed by 20 years “post-release DNA profile was entered into the supervision,” after a jury found databank after his 2009 conviction him guilty of sexually motivated Greg Poirier for sexually motivated burglary in a burglary in the first degree and separate case. sexual abuse in the first degree. Poirier was arrested that year in According to a press release from the New New York after five women were groped durYork County district attorney’s office, the ing a two- to three-hour period. charges relate to an incident on April 18, 2008 At the time, he had warrants for his arrest in which Poirier followed a young woman to in Canada, including in Vernon, where he Black Press
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was the prime suspect in a November 2007 break-and-enter and charged with seven offences. In that case, a woman awakened to find a man standing in her bedroom. She barricaded herself in a bathroom and called police, telling them the culprit had fled in a Suzuki Swift. The car was stopped by police, but the driver led officers on a high-speed chase, which was called off when it reached a dangerous level. The Suzuki was found abandoned, and the driver – believed to be Poirier – was not located. Before any of those incidents, Poirier was found guilty of groping a woman in Abbotsford as she was putting groceries into her car after shopping in September 2005. He received a 30-day jail sentence.
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The woman testified that Poirier had grabbed her buttocks as he brushed past her, according to court records. She was shaken by the incident, and drove home to her apartment building. The woman then saw Poirier in her underground parking lot and, when she asked him what he was doing there, he said his grandfather lived in the building. She suggested they walk to the front door, and he again grabbed her buttocks. The victim confronted Poirier, who ran from the scene, and she then phoned police. The woman identified Poirier in a photo lineup, and the Abbotsford provincial court trial judge found him guilty, saying that “the sexual integrity of the victim (had been) violated.” – with files from The Morning Star