A residential unit at 775 McGill Road was targetted in a reported Kamloops shooting on Sept. 16, 2022.
(LEVI LANDRY / iNFOnews.ca)
July 13, 2023 - 1:16 PM
A 32-year-old man will spend more than a year in jail after helping in an apartment robbery near Thompson Rivers University last year.
Alexander James Zeballos pleaded guilty to breaking and entering in Kamloops Provincial Court on July 13 after spending nearly nine months in custody already.
Zeballos was with two other men when he used a hammer to break the window of the ground floor apartment, leaving with a backpack, a jewelry box and a laptop, according to Crown prosecutor Anthony Varesi.
Varesi said his co-accused, Kaleb Lawrence Conroy, waited just outside the apartment, while a third man was in the getaway vehicle. The break-in was caught on the apartment's surveillance cameras.
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Varesi didn't name the man in the getaway vehicle, but third co-accused Dylan Glaser was convicted of theft earlier this year and handed a 90-day conditional sentence.
Judge Raymond Phillips gave Zeballos a 900-day sentence on July 13 with 390 days credit for time he's already spent in custody. His lawyer, John Gustafson, said Zeballos pointed to his drug relapse as a precursor for the robbery. He was clean for "several years," but relapsed after his girlfriend died, according to Gustafson.
Police were called to the 775 McGill Road apartment robbery around 7:41 a.m., Sept. 16, where neighbours reported hearing gunshots.
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Kamloops RCMP initially arrested five men, but only the three were charged.
All three initially faced a charge of robbery with a firearm.
Zeballos and Glaser had their firearm-related charges stayed, while Conroy is still in court and has not been convicted.
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The tenant in the apartment wasn't home during the September break-in, but he was targeted again earlier this year.
On Feb. 25, three men broke into his apartment around 3 a.m. wearing dark clothes and balaclavas.
They fled on foot after the resident was shot and assaulted, according to a Kamloops RCMP news release.
No one has been charged in the second incident.
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