(JENNIFER STAHN / iNFOnews.ca)
January 13, 2015 - 2:18 PM
KAMLOOPS - A dial-a-dope drug dealer caught in an undercover RCMP operation was handed a one-year probationary sentence on Monday, Jan. 12 for dealing cocaine.
Jeremy Machmer, 27, appeared in Kamloops Supreme Court where he pleaded guilty to trafficking cocaine.
In September 2013, Machmer sold two rocks of the drug for fifty dollars to a police officer who posed as a buyer, texted a dealer’s number and met the accused in the Denny’s parking lot on Tranquille Road. After the exchange, Machmer left on a bicycle and was quickly stopped by another officer who noticed he wasn’t wearing a helmet.
Crown prosecutor Anthony Varesi asked Justice Hope Hyslop to hand Machmer a four-month jail sentence. He acknowledged Machmer was working in tandem with a female dealer.
“(He was) working in concert, perhaps even under this other female,” Varesi said.
Machmer’s lawyer, Don Campbell, asked Hyslop to consider a probationary sentence because of his client’s mental health rehabilitation.
Campbell said prior to seeking treatment, Machmer’s mind was in “full blown psychosis.”
At the time of the offense, Machmer believed he was communicating with clouds and started to believe several conspiracy theories, Campbell said.
“It was clear his thought process was very mired in delusions,” he said adding his client’s mental state was taken advantage of by dealers who made him a delivery boy. “He was at risk of being utilized by people like this.”
Machmer received over four weeks of treatment in the acute psychiatric ward of Royal Inland Hospital. The court heard his mental health has shown a remarkable change since his psychological assessment.
Through his suspended sentence, Machmer will continue with his medication and treatment. He is restricted from owning firearms and must submit a DNA sample to the national registry.
To contact the reporter for this story, email Glynn Brothen at gbrothen@infonews.ca or call 250-319-7494. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.
News from © iNFOnews, 2015