SURREY — A burglar who terrorized a North Delta household has been sentenced to five years in prison.
Yonatan Abraham Kassa, 28, originally from the Sudan, broke into a house on Fairfield Place in Scottsdale with another man on Aug. 22, 2011 after casing the place out. He pleaded guilty to breaking into the house, using an imitation gun, and theft over $5,000.
The Crown sought six years and the defence sought four. Justice Robert Crawford, in B.C. Supreme Court in New Westminster, noted that Kassa and his accomplice were under police surveillance at the time. They tried to pry the front door open with a bar, but ended up smashing it in. Two tenants, a man and woman, were inside the house and left with "great speed" when they heard the burglars, Crawford noted.
They bailed out of the back door - the woman still in her pyjamas - hid in a shed in the backyard, and then jumped two fences.
"Then they called the owner and the owner called a friend who lived nearby and then they called the police. Curiously, given the police were onlookers, calling the police seems rather redundant but of course nobody knew that," Crawford remarked.
"The man said he was freaked out; it scared the hell out of him. The lady has been far more affected and is seeing a therapist.
"There is an effect within the community," Crawford noted. "It appears the violence of these matters sometimes, like a pebble in a lake, causes circles of fear and mistrust."
After ransacking the house, the burglars loaded two small safes containing several thousand dollars, as well as computers, cellphones and some brand name ladies' handbags into a van they'd pulled up to the front door.
Before leaving, the thieves were interrupted by a gardener and a neighbour who "promptly" left when told to.
Crawford noted that the neighbour "literally charged in" and then "charged out equally fast" when Kassa's accomplice raised a gun with a silencer.
The thieves took off in the van to a shopping centre, where the police closed in on them. Police found the van contained not only the stolen property but what the Crown described as being a "home invasion kit" containing bear spray, balaclavas, changes of clothing, licence plates and tools, a gun and an imitation gun.
Kassa had already been in trouble with the law for drug trafficking, breaching court orders, break and entry, trespassing at night and driving while prohibited.
He'd already spent 23 months in custody, waiting for the North Delta burglary charges to be dealt with in court. Crawford sentenced him to five years minus the time served.
Crawford noted that people "are entitled to feel free and secure in their residence.
"Society cannot tolerate criminal intrusion into the privacy of the home," he said, "otherwise people start resorting - as we see south of the border - to having guns in their home and sometimes quite innocent people on their doorstep get blown away."