A woman involved in a break and enter and street robbery in Saskatoon was violently coerced into participating, say both the woman’s lawyer and the Crown.
Court heard Sydney Lorie Olchoway, 19, had blood on her face when she was arrested on Oct. 10, 2015 shortly after the robberies were committed. She pleaded guilty in Saskatoon Court of Queen’s Bench this week to breaking into a home in the Rosewood neighbourhood and having property obtained by crime after police found numerous stolen items in the back of her vehicle.
She was with Brayden Vincent Reimer when she was arrested. Reimer was sentenced on March 16 to 20 months in jail in connection to the same break and enter and for robbing a teen girl, while armed with a machete, as she walked home from a movie on Eighth Street. The two offences took place just hours apart.
Olchoway admitted being at the robberies, but said Reimer assaulted her into coming along, Crown prosecutor Rochelle Wempe told the court.
Defence lawyer Michael Owens said when his client resisted, Reimer resorted to violence. Some of the original charges “went away” because Olchoway felt “compelled to do those things,” he added.
Justice Mona Dovell accepted the Crown and defence’s joint-submission for a 12-month suspended sentence with conditions that prohibit her from using drugs.
Wempe said it’s the best sentence to address Olchoway’s drug addiction, which the Crown recognizes was the cause of her criminal behaviour. The Crown took into account that an “ongoing abusive relationship” was also an underlying cause, Wempe said.
Olchoway, an honour-roll high school student who comes from a “very good family,” became dependent on others to feed her drug addiction, Owens said. She has applied for in-house addictions treatment, is trying to get a job and wants to surround herself with better people, he told court.
Speaking to the judge, Olchoway said she has cut ties with Reimer. Her court-ordered conditions prohibit her from contacting him.
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