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A Williams Lake woman was sentenced to two years on house arrest after she shot another woman in the stomach with a sawed-off shotgun.

Randi Allison Saunders, born in 1991, pleaded guilty to a single firearm possession charge two years after the shooting, according to a recently published B.C. Supreme Court decision.

As of July 26, she's required to live under house arrest in a Kamloops motel and she can't return to Williams Lake.

Saunders had a sawed-off .410-gauge shotgun at her home in March 2019, which she picked up because she worried people were going to "come after her," according to the decision.

On March 2, two other women, a mother and a daughter, came to her house and confronted Saunders in her bedroom. One of the women sprayed Saunders with pepper spray, to which she responded by shooting the mother, Laura Taylor, in the abdomen, according to the decision.

Another person in the house was pepper sprayed as Taylor's daughter helped her out of the building.

The victim survived, but she needed surgery and still needs medical care for her injuries.

That wasn't the first time Saunders and Taylor had conflicts.

Taylor came to the house a month earlier and beat Saunders with a baton. Police did show up to the home and found an injured Saunders inside on Feb. 1, 2019, but she wouldn't cooperate with officers on the scene.

"Thus no further investigation ensued," the decision from Justice Marguerite Church reads.

Saunders was arrested and initially faced seven criminal charges, including aggravated assault, discharging a firearm with intent to wound, and assault with a weapon.

She was released on bail on May 18, 2019, to a women's support facility, but she left the program within two days for not participating in the program and not returning for her curfew. Saunders was once again in custody until Sept. 12.

She then lived at Henry Leland House in Kamloops, a supportive housing facility, for just two weeks, before getting evicted again for not following the program or her curfew.

She finally followed conditions after her second arrest for failing to follow court conditions that month while she remained in Kamloops.

Saunders pleaded guilty in a Williams Lake courtroom July 2021, but she wasn't sentenced until the next year, according to the decision.

Saunders grew up in a "dysfunctional household." Her father was an addict and she was physically abused by her mother before she was eventually placed in foster care.

She's been using drugs and alcohol since at least 12, and the court found the intergenerational trauma from the Indian residential school system played a role "in bringing Saunders before (the) court."

On July 26, 2022, she was sentenced to 603 days on house arrest for possession of a prohibited firearm. She was given 128 days credit for time already served.

She's prohibited from having or consuming drugs and alcohol, along with contacting the victim and several other people.

The court prohibited Saunders from entering the City of Williams Lake during her sentence.

For the first six months of her sentence, Saunders is restricted to her home for 24 hours a day. Then she will abide by a curfew from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. every day at her home in Kamloops.

Saunders will also be required to commit to 80 hours of community service.

She must notify the court if she moves.

"Let me be very clear, Ms. Saunders, that a (conditional sentence order) is a jail sentence that is served in the community," Church said in court transcripts. "If you breach the conditions of the order, there are potentially very serious consequences."

She said Saunders would risk serving the rest of her sentence in prison.

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