The B.C. Court of Appeal has upheld the sentence against a Nanaimo drug dealer who claimed he was not given a fair trial when he was convicted of multiple drug and firearm-related offences.
Justin Thomas Gary Donovan, born in 1984, was found guilty in 2023 of two counts of drug possession, two counts of possession for the purpose of trafficking, three counts of firearms possession without a licence and three counts of possessing firearms contrary to a prohibition order. According to a court document, the charges stem from an RCMP raid of his south-end Nanaimo residence in 2019.
On Oct. 2, 2019, a 911 caller alleged he was held hostage, beaten and choked, with one captor threatening to burn him with a butane torch and another threatening to stab him. The complainant referred to borrowing money from the accused, some of which was still owing, stated information in the ruling.
Donovan was arrested the day after the 911 call at his residence, and then during a search six days later, police confiscated close to $6,000 in cash, 18 grams of cocaine, 7g of methamphetamine, 10g of ecstasy, one litre of GHB, a pistol, semi-automatic rifle, two shotguns, ammunition and electronics.
Donovan's legal counsel thought his client's Charter rights had been violated. They expressed concerns about the search warrant's legality, in part because "there were no reasonable grounds to believe that the butane torch and [other evidence] would still be in the residence seven days after the alleged violent incident," stated information in the document.
In her trial decision, the judge ruled that while the methamphetamine and ecstasy may have been for personal use, she thought the amount of cocaine and GHB warranted a conviction for possession for the purposes of trafficking. Donovan was sentenced to four and a half years in jail.
Donovan appealed the conviction as he felt "he was deprived of a fair hearing due to the conduct of the pre-trial proceedings and the trial judge made a mistake in "summarily dismissing his Charter challenge." He argued that he was convicted on three weapons counts "in the absence of evidence," and also pointed to a lack of consistency with the methamphetamine/ecstasy and cocaine/GHB charges.
In an appeal court ruling Feb. 4, justices Margot Fleming, Susan Griffin and Patrice Abrioux stated in part, they saw "nothing illogical or irrational" about the differences in drug convictions. "Simply put it is not unreasonable to find an accused guilty of using and trafficking in different drugs at the same time," Fleming wrote.
In relation to the restricted weapons charges, Fleming stated that Crown thought a stay of charges was "unsupportable," and she was "satisfied that with respect to the two convictions for each firearm, there are two wrongful acts involved."
As for a fair trial, the appeal court determined that the appellant was not deprived of a fair hearing and the trial judge wasn't wrong to decline a voir dire on the Charter challenge "as it was bound to fail."
The hearing took place in Victoria on Oct. 8 and the panel rendered its decision Feb. 4 in Vancouver.
