Anthony Randolph Muskego

Image Credit: FACEBOOK: Tony Muskego

A prolific offender who pointed a 3D-printed gun at a Penticton woman who had retrieved her stolen bicycle was told by a BC judge that just because the gun didn't work didn't mean it wasn't a serious crime.

Anthony Randolph Muskego appeared at the Penticton courthouse Wednesday, Dec. 11 following a slew of convictions ranging from bear spraying a person he accused of stealing his backpack, to break and enter, and pointing the 3D-printed weapon.

"It may seem, perhaps, to Mr. Muskego that pointing something that looks like a gun that can't really fire at somebody isn't that big a deal," BC Provincial Court Justice Shannon Keyes said. "But the fact is, this wasn't a toy."

The incident dates back to March 2023 when a Penticton resident realized her bike had been stolen. She posted about the theft on social media and got replies saying she might find her bike on Industrial Avenue near the Penticton Community Living Society.

She got into her truck and drove over where she found Muskego, a couple of others and her bike.

She grabbed the bicycle and threw it in the back of her truck but returned to take a video with her phone of Muskego and the others who she thought stole her bike.

Muskego then lifted the gun and pointed it at her before lowering his hand.

She jumped in her truck, drove off and called the police.

The 35-year-old was arrested shortly afterwards.

Muskego told the police he knew that the bicycle was stolen, but that he had bought it.

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"He said that he knew the lady who came for her bike was yelling at him, and he didn't like it when she did that," Justice Keyes said.

Muskego had told police the weapon was fake and was made of Styrofoam.

However, it wasn't made of Styrofoam and with several modifications and adaptations, it could be used to fire bullets.

"So it wasn't a firearm under the criminal code, because it would take too long to make it operable. However, had it been operable, it would have been not only a firearm but a prohibited firearm," the Judge said.

Court heard how Muskego had got the gun for protection and to scare "Big Joe" – an individual who was targeting people who sold heroin and had beaten him up.

Along the the weapons charge, Muskego also pleaded guilty to a break and enter at a business on Green Mountain Road.

In another separate incident, Muskego had bear-sprayed a man he said had stolen his backpack.

"At the time, the other guy was standing still and had his hands on his thighs. He wasn't any threat to Mr. Muskego," the Judge said.

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Crown prosecutors argued Muskego should spend two years in jail, while the defence argued for one year.

The court heard how the 35-year-old has spent plenty of time in prison throughout his adult life and he had been convicted roughly two dozen times.

His crimes ranged from sexual assault and domestic violence to break-and-enter and dangerous driving.

The court heard how he'd been taken from his mother at birth and lived with relatives and foster parents. He suffered abuse at their hands.

"Mr. Muskego seems to be suffering from the intergenerational effects of colonization, in the sense that not only has he suffered from dislocation from his family and unstable living arrangements pretty much his whole life, but that same problem plagued his parents, and in part, I think, produced the impossibility of Mr. Muskego's life," Justice Keyes said.

He'd been diagnosed with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder as a child.

"It certainly appears to me that his criminal record is consistent with having the impulsivity that tends to go with a diagnosis of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder," the Judge said.

The judge said when he wasn't incarcerated, he tended to be homeless.

However, he had got sober and worked on the Site C dam for several years.

"That sense of stability and income earning is what I'm told by Mr. Muskego that he would like to be able to repeat today if he can get his addictions under control," Justice Keyes said.

Ultimately, Keyes sentenced Muskego to 18 months jail, which with time already served means he'd have four-and-a-half months left to serve.

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