Golden West intruder granted time served

A man who pulled a knife when cornered by police after breaking into a local business and attempting to evade arrest was deemed more of a harm to himself than others in Steinbach provincial court last week.

Frazer Schmidt, 38, was granted time served for his involvement in a break and enter to the Golden West Broadcasting building in January.

“I was deeply depressed,” Schmidt said softly from the accused’s box, wearing a grey sweatsuit.

Court heard RCMP were called to the building on the evening of Jan. 30 after an employee told Mounties a man had gained entry to the building and refused to leave. At the same time, police arrested a different man who broke into the same building but fled to a nearby business.

When officers tried to arrest Schmidt from the third floor of the building he ran down a set of stairs and got stuck on the bottom floor before pulling out a blade and holding it to his wrist, indicating he only intended to hurt himself.

Defence lawyer Brett Gladstone told court his client was using opiates and meth on a regular basis at the time of his arrest.

“In this particular case, it comes down to what was going on in his life,” he told Judge Tim Killeen, noting his client’s struggle to find housing and with personal relationships and his mental health at the time.

“Literally no charges needed to arise out of this.”

Gladstone argued his client’s 32 days spent in custody after his arrest was punishment enough, while crown attorney Jonathan Mays asked for 60 days incarceration, citing the accused’s prior convictions including breaches of probation, aggravated assault and robbery.

“Mr. Schmidt’s got a bit of an unenviable record,” he told court. The accused was on multiple court-issued conditions of release at the time stemming from previous offences still before him.

Killeen granted him his time served and one year probation for the offence.

“I appreciate your circumstances.”

Frazer was remanded back into custody to appear on unrelated matters in Winnipeg last Friday.