A long-time offender currently behind bars has pleaded guilty to another vessel break-in.
Last December, Wade Cahill, 41, received a one-year jail sentence – less 96 days for time already served – after pleading guilty to stealing items from a local grocery store as well as breaking into a boat moored at Quathiaski Cove on Quadra Island.
On Sept. 7, 2010, Cahill and a female accomplice broke into the Seymour Winds and were seen leaving the dock with a 33-inch television, laptop computer, DVD player and a sleeping bag.
The next day, the two were arrested after Cahill stole items from the Real Canadian Superstore in Campbell River.
During his sentencing hearing in December, the court heard that Cahill had been addicted to cocaine for the past 15 years.
He entered guilty pleas to the two charges in order to help turn his life around.
“He told me he’s getting too old for this lifestyle and wants to get his life together otherwise he might die in jail,” said his lawyer, Chantal Sutton, on Dec. 13, in provincial court.
But what the judge didn’t hear about was the Sept. 4, 2010 break-in of another vessel.
In that instance, Cahill and the accomplice broke through a locked hatch, soiled a mattress and made off with liquor.
However, Cahill left behind a finger and palm print on a bottle in the boat’s refrigerator.
On Monday, in Campbell River provincial court, Cahill appeared by video from jail cells in Victoria.
He pleaded guilty to the Sept. 4 break-in, but Crown prosecutor Bruce Goddard said the crime should have been included during the sentencing hearing last December. Regardless, the jail term would have been about the same and so Judge Brian Saunderson imposed a one-day jail sentence to be served concurrently with his present term. Cahill has a lengthy criminal record, including two convictions for drug trafficking.
He’s due to be released from custody on June 10, when he completes two-thirds of his jail term.