Liquor store robbery nets man two years in jail

By Peggy Revell on January 12, 2018.

prevell@medicinehatnews.com @MHNprevell

A man who robbed a local liquor store in 2016 was sentenced Thursday to two years jail time.

Kyle Palmer, 29, entered the guilty plea at the Medicine Hat Provincial Courthouse, with 18 months probation on top of the federal sentence.

According to the agreed statement of facts, on Nov. 7, 2016 around 11 p.m. a man entered the Circle K liquor store on Dunmore Road, and demanded cash from the attendant. The man had a bandana covering his face and was carrying a small gold colour object. The attendant gave him $95.

Three-and-a-half hours later police noticed the accused in a nearby area matching the description. He was arrested, with the $95 recovered, and a small gold coloured tattoo gun found on him.

Palmer also pled guilty Thursday to breaching a no contact order stemming from the incident. After the robbery, but prior to the arrest, he walked to a nearby residence belonging to a woman he had been dating and showed her the money. She told him to get out of her house, and that she didn’t want anything to do with criminal activity.

Three months later, this woman began receiving texts from an unknown individual, threatening that she’d better not make statements against Palmer to the police. The woman thought these messages were coming from Palmer, but it was later discovered they were coming from another woman who had sent them using Palmer’s computer, and he knew the messages had been sent and did nothing to stop them.

A victim’s impact statement was entered as evidence about the effect the threatening texts had on the woman.

Palmer has no previous criminal record, and no breaches save for the no contact incident. Defence counsel said Palmer has severe anxiety and depression, and at the time of the incident was going through an episode and “not thinking straight.”

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