A Kelowna jury found Brandon Oswald guilty of robbing a West Kelowna drug store in 2014. He will be sentenced later this summer.
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June 16, 2016 - 12:32 PM
KELOWNA – A Kelowna Supreme Court jury has found Brandon Joseph Oswald guilty of using an imitation handgun to rob a West Kelowna drug store of thousands of pain pills and hundreds of dollars in 2014.
Oswald, 24, was found guilty of robbery, disguising his face during the robbery and using an imitation firearm to commit an indictable offence.
He was arrested on March 11, 2014, as he left the Shoppers Drug Mart on Dobbin Road with roughly 6,000 pain pills and several hundred dollars. He was wearing sunglasses and a bandana over his face and carrying what appeared to be a black handgun he used to get pills and cash from employees as they prepared to close for the day. When he left the store roughly ten RCMP officers were outside waiting.
His lawyer Valerie Hartney argued because no threats or violence were used he should be found innocent of the robbery charge, but after two days of deliberation the jury found him guilty of the three most significant charges.
The 12-person jury found Oswald not guilty of possessing an unregistered shotgun and ammunition police found on a futon in his apartment.
He will be sentenced sometime in August.
Oswald, who has no prior criminal history, still faces numerous other possible charges relating to up to six other robberies that occurred one month earlier in Kelowna and West Kelowna.
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