Brandon Michael Gibson’s earlier guilty plea to possession of fentanyl pills has been struck from the record.
Honourable Judge Kathleen Williams struck Gibson’s June 14 guilty plea after a misunderstanding of the charge’s wording made it unclear what he was originally pleading guilty to.
After not being able to find the transcript of the court appearance when he pled guilty to posession of over 100 fentanyl pills, Williams decided a new plea needs entered before a new judge.
Federal Crown prosecutor Vic Findlater agreed with the judge’s decision to start fresh.
During the Sept. 4 court appearance, claimed Gibson couldn’t remember the May 6, 2017 incident due to a head injury that resulted in short-term memory loss.
He appeared in the Bonnyville Provincial Court on Tuesday, Sept. 18 for sentencing, with medical paperwork Williams had requested.
On May, 6 2017 at around 5 p.m. a call was made to Bonnyville RCMP about a possible impaired driver on Hwy. 28.
Officers located the vehicle, noticing that it was swerving on the road, and conducted a traffic stop. Based on observations, police believed Gibson was impaired.
During a search of the vehicle, RCMP found 104 green pills that were sent away for testing. Tests confirmed the drugs contained fentanyl.
Following his arrest, Gibson told police he was an addict, and that the drugs were for his own personal use.
The Crown contacted a specialist to confirm this, and Findlater said they couldn’t confirm “beyond a reasonable doubt” that the pills were for personal consumption.
Williams disagreed with the Crown’s original four-month conditional sentence, describing the charges against Gibson are “very serious.”
She said during the Sept. 4 appearance fentanyl is a “nation-wide epidemic”, and his two previous convictions for possession for the purpose of trafficking needed to be taken into account for the case.
Williams urged Gibson to talk to counsel and said he would be facing a significant sentence.
His matters were adjourned until Nov. 6. Williams stressed the case wouldn’t be pushed back another time.
