Wiping tears from his eyes, Rida Naim listened as a judge sentenced him for a brazen daytime robbery at a downtown Saskatoon jewelry store, calling the crime “terrifying and dangerous.”
Four men stormed into Birks around 10 a.m. on Feb. 1, 2014. Without saying a word to the two clerks working that morning, they started smashing display cases with crowbars and stuffing Rolex watches and other jewelry into duffel bags. The whole thing was caught on surveillance video. A 1998 Dodge Caravan was later found burning near Osler Street and Bottomley Avenue.
It took just over a minute for the men to steal $500,000 worth of goods and cause $200,000 worth of damage to the store, Crown prosecutor John Knox said Monday during Naim’s sentencing in Saskatoon provincial court.
The 26-year-old from Montreal pleaded guilty to robbery and conspiring to commit arson. The Crown stayed a charge of wearing a mask while committing an offence.
The Crown was able to build a strong circumstantial case thanks to some “old-fashioned police work” and the help of several civilians, Knox told the judge.
Witnesses who saw the men leave in the Dodge Caravan took down its license plate number. Naim was caught on surveillance video filling a jerry can at a gas station before the van was discovered in flames, and security footage at a nearby apartment building showed a group of men coming and going with duffel bags similar to the ones used in the robbery.
Someone also found the construction hoodies the men were wearing — purchased at Walmart just hours before the heist — in a trash bin in the same neighbourhood as the vehicle fire.
Court heard one of the hoodies contained Naim’s DNA, leading to his eventual arrest in Montreal, where he was serving an unrelated sentence.
Chief Judge James Plemel accepted a joint submission from the Crown and defence, imposing a sentence of three and a half years in prison, and giving Naim an enhanced credit for his time spent on remand in Saskatoon since May 26, 2015.
Defence lawyer Blaine Beaven said Naim has been away from his family, who all live in Montreal. He said his client describes himself as a “black sheep;” while his siblings went to university and got retail and management jobs, Naim dropped out of high school and started getting in trouble.
Naim was headed to Saskatoon by bus, hoping to find work in the city, when he met the co-accused men and got “caught up” in the robbery, Beaven told court.
“This must have been terrifying for the people in the store,” Plemel said, citing a victim impact statement that also described the unnecessary amount of vandalism to the business.
Naim’s criminal record includes a prior robbery, conspiring to commit robbery and credit card fraud. Plemel told Naim he has a real problem with honesty and integrity and “obviously didn’t get the message.”
However, he noted the sentence is in the range for robbery, and is similar to the four-year sentence handed down to his co-accused, Muhidiin Ahmed-Farah, in April 2014.
A robbery charge against another co-accused, 23-year-old Jean Gillis Kenser, was stayed last week. Police are still looking for a fourth suspect, Pierre Louis Hernandes, who is wanted on a Canada-wide warrant.
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