The thief loses his appeal to reduce his nine-month house arrest sentence

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A prolific shoplifter who pleaded guilty to shoplifting from three downtown Vancouver clothing stores and was sentenced to nine months of house arrest — more than double what prosecutors had asked for — has lost his sentence appeal.

The Downtown Community Court sentence in April confines Nicole Murphy, 39, to her residence between 4pm and 7am and came after she pleaded guilty to three counts of shoplifting , while still on probation for similar offenses a year earlier.

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The lower court judge noted that “there’s a part of me that just wants to give you a straight prison sentence in the hope that that would deter you”, adding that he sentenced her to house arrest because “it looks like you’re not in danger when you’re on a conditional sentence order.”

Murphy appealed to the Supreme Court to reduce the house arrest to four months, but Judge Maria Morellato rejected this, relying on precedents to find that the sentence was not “demonstrably inappropriate”.

The three most recent felonies to which Murphy pleaded guilty were fleeing with a stack of pants from the Lululemon store on Robson Street in August 2023, walking out of a Victoria’s Secret store four months later with $750 worth of underwear and four months after that “literally. stuffed” two bags filled with about $1,200 worth of sports bras, pants and hats at the Abercrombie and Fitch store in Pacific Center before taking a cab to the Downtown Eastside, the lawsuit alleges. It all happened around 5 p.m., the judge wrote.

The community court judge heard that Murphy has various mental health issues, including fentanyl use, is being treated for schizophrenia by a psychiatrist, had begun opioid substitution therapy at the time of sentencing and wanted to enter counseling, the judge said Supreme Court.

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Prosecutors asked for four months’ house arrest, saying Murphy had 25 previous convictions for theft under $5,000 dating back to 2009 and that she “doesn’t appear to be deterred” but is doing “surprisingly well” in house arrest. , Morellato wrote.

The defense proposed three months of house arrest and did not enter into a joint sentencing plea with the prosecutor, which meant the lower court judge was free to change the sentencing order, and he did, up to the nine months, he wrote it.

“I think the stores need a break from you, Mrs. Murphy,” the sentencing judge said. And he told her that if she stole while she was on this suspended sentence order and she came before him again, she would be sentenced to prison.

“I am satisfied that the sentencing judge was justifiably concerned about Ms. Murphy’s 25 prior shoplifting offenses and her apparent ‘badass’ and continued efforts to shoplift while on probation,” Morellato wrote. “He specifically refers (to) the need to deter such conduct.”

She noted that Murphy also had 57 previous convictions in total, including for robbery, assault and weapons possession, and the sentencing judge only focused on the 25 thefts when deciding on a sentence.

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Street unrest and bail offenders were a concern of voters in the recent provincial election, a problem Premier David Eby wanted to address when he became premier in November 2022.

He then announced two new measures, one designed to strengthen law enforcement and the other to strengthen intervention services to “help people break the cycle of life in and out of prison” with programs such as a new addiction care model at St. Paul.

In January 2023, BC became the first Canadian province to decriminalize possession of hard drugs, but the province responded to public concern about increasing public drug use, intoxication and disorder by moving to ban illicit drug use in public places , including hospitals and parks.

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