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Border jumper admits guilt, returned to custody after courtroom stunts

By: Mike McIntyre

Posted: 10/17/2012 4:24 PM | Comments: 0

Staeton Grant

A chronic Canadian border jumper has admitted to his latest failed attempt to enter the country -- and drawn the ire of a Manitoba judge for his behaviour during the process.

Staeton Kevin Grant, 40, appeared in court Wednesday to plead guilty to sneaking across the Manitoba-North Dakota border on a bicycle earlier this year.

But his expected sentencing hearing came to a sudden halt when the Jamaican man repeatedly interrupted the process and refused to wear headphones so he could hear the legal submissions while appearing on video link from Headingley jail.

"I’m not prepared to deal with this childish behaviour much longer," warned provincial court Judge Lynn Stannard. "I’ve got enough matters where people want to deal with their matters and aren’t acting like eight-year-olds."

Grant’s lawyer repeatedly told him to keep quiet and allow for the sentencing to continue. But Grant refused to comply, routinely removing his headphones and banging the microphone which created a loud distraction in the courtroom.

As the Crown began reciting the facts, Grant upped his efforts at being a nuisance. That prompted Stannard to abruptly pull the plug, ordering Grant to remain in custody and vowing to have sheriff’s officers personally bring him into court when the sentencing continues, likely next month.

"Tell him to grow up," Stannard told Grant’s lawyer, who apologized for his client’s behaviour.

Grant was captured in April by officers from the Canada Border Services Agency, who found him hiding in the attic of the side-by-side Winnipeg home where his girlfriend and daughter live.

He will once again be deported once his legal matters are resolved and he completes serving any sentence he is given. However, his courtroom performance on Wednesday may ultimately add to his stay in the country.

Grant has an extensive history with the Canadian justice system. He arrived in 1985 as a landed immigrant but was deported in 1993 after being convicted of a vicious baseball bat attack on another man.

Grant tried to enter the country in 1998, 1996 and 2006 - the latter when he posed as his brother-in-law while trying to board a flight in Jamaica, court was told. He was turned away each time.

Grant did get into Winnipeg in 2010 but was promptly arrested and detained at Headingley. His girlfriend was caught posing as an immigration officer and faxed a phoney letter to jail officials saying the charges against Grant had been dropped.

Jail officials didn’t act on the letter, but the girlfriend was charged and sentenced to four months of house arrest a year later. Grant was given another one-way ticket out of Canada weeks later, only to reappear once again earlier this year.

"He didn’t come here to hurt anybody or cause trouble, he just wanted to see his children," his girlfriend told the Free Press after his most recent arrest.

Grant crossed the border south of Boissevain and later eluded capture by the RCMP, who tracked him down in that community. When confronted by police, Grant ran away, leaving behind the bike and his backpack, which contained his passport. It’s not clear how Grant made his way from Boissevain to Winnipeg.

An RCMP spokeswoman said after Grant was identified, investigators concluded he would attempt to see his girlfriend in Winnipeg and passed that information along to the CBSA, which obtained a search warrant for the woman’s home.

www.mikeoncrime.com

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