No jail time for collector who had prohibited weapons

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This article was published 23/10/2021 (1452 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A WINNIPEG pyrotechnician and gun collector, who kept dozens of prohibited weapons and loaded firearms that were not stored safely, was spared jail time after being diagnosed on the autism spectrum.

Andrew Krywonizka, 43, received a two-years-less-a-day conditional sentence to be served partially on house arrest.

He had pleaded guilty to six weapons offences and admitted he used an alias to import a firearm sound suppressor prohibited in Canada even though the Canadian Border Services Agency had warned him it was illegal.

He’s expected to serve eight months of house arrest, followed by eight months under a 10 p.m. to 6 p.m. curfew and another eight months under a midnight to 6 a.m. curfew, as well as complete 200 hours of community service work and follow several other court-imposed conditions.

He will be able to apply for another firearms licence that would allow him to continue working with explosives. He won’t have to submit a DNA sample to police.

The Crown was seeking six years in prison and argued there was no connection between his post-arrest autism diagnosis and the offences, but defence lawyers Richard Wolson and Daniel Wolson argued their client should serve his sentence in the community.

The judge agreed.

When she issued her decision Oct. 14, provincial court Judge Mary Kate Harvie wrote she saw a link between Krywonizka’s recent autism diagnosis and the criminal offences because his gun collection was one of several collections he maintained, a sign of his preoccupation with his interests.

Harvie regularly oversees cases involving offenders who have fetal-alcohol syndrome disorder.

In her decision, she emphasized there was no evidence he has violent tendencies.

Krywonizka owns a business and has worked as a pyrotechnician creating fireworks displays for 25 years.

He has no other criminal record and leads a “pro-law enforcement lifestyle,” Harvie wrote.

His father is a retired Winnipeg Police Service officer who lives next door.

Two of the prohibited handguns found in Krywonizka’s home were registered to the retired officer — “a sad and disturbing fact,” the judge wrote.

“Sometimes good people do bad things. Sometimes a person who is an otherwise honest, kind, pro-social, law-abiding citizen engages in conduct which results in criminal charges,” Harvie wrote.

Krywonizka’s attempt to import an illegal sound suppressor device is what prompted the eventual police investigation that led to his arrest and seizures of dozens of weapons in October 2019.

Border agents intercepted the package.

The border agency had warned Krywonizka in 2002, when it intercepted other prohibited weapons he was trying to import.

Police found dozens of weapons in his basement gun room and loaded guns in his bedroom night table.

He was legally allowed to have some of the guns, but they were improperly stored.

Other weapons had no serial numbers or were restricted.

fpcity@freepress.mb.ca