A Montrealer who tried to fool the police by hiding a loaded pistol during a routine inspection in a bar will have to go to prison to think, ruled a judge, who wanted to send a clear message against armed violence.
“The sentence of incarceration coupled with a probation order will, we hope, make him more aware of the actions taken so that he understands that carrying a loaded firearm in a place frequented by the public, even as a protective measure, is not a trivial gesture, far from it,” insisted Judge David Simon of the Court of Quebec, in a recent judgment.
Léo Karmin Marabella found himself in trouble due to a trivial police operation under the Alcoholic Beverage Offenses Act in a Montreal bar seven years ago.
On October 14, 2016, the morality police were supposed to inspect bottles of alcohol, but one of them instead came across a firearm in the bathroom of the establishment. The gun was in a bag, hidden in a bathroom cabinet. The policeman wanted to pack it down to continue his search, but was surprised by the unusual heaviness.
Betrayed by cameras
Suspecting that beer cans might be there, he instead found a .45 caliber pistol, with a bullet chambered.
The bag contained the gun, a second magazine, eight rounds of ammunition, but no identification papers. The simple routine operation thus transformed into a criminal investigation.
At the time, the police did not know who the bag or its contents belonged to. Léo Karmin Marabella was only arrested and charged three years later, thanks to an analysis of his DNA found on the weapon.
He had also been betrayed by surveillance cameras on the premises. In the images, he is seen carrying the bag throughout the evening. Except that when the police arrived, he sneaked towards the bathroom and returned less than two minutes later, without his fashion accessory.
Photo courtesy of the Court
The accused, now aged 35, has since admitted to obtaining the weapon for protection. At the same time, two of his wife’s brothers, who were linked to organized crime, had disappeared. He said he felt an imminent threat to his family.
The only appropriate punishment
The man, with no prior record and a good job, hoped to be able to serve his house arrest sentence. But despite his good profile and a risk of recidivism deemed low, the magistrate instead sentenced him to two years of detention.
“The need for denunciation and deterrence is so pressing that incarceration is the only appropriate punishment to express society’s disapproval of [de son] behavior and to discourage similar behavior in the future,” the judge said.
According to him, the accused showed great recklessness with regard to public safety and exposed his fellow citizens to “real and immediate danger”, especially considering that the weapon was loaded.
“A simple pull of the trigger, even through inadvertence or negligence, could have led to tragic consequences,” he wrote, recalling that the sole purpose of owning a firearm is to use it “in the event of need to injure or kill others.