Coffee throwing robber receives jail sentence

By Delon Shurtz on April 21, 2021.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDdshurtz@lethbridgeherald.com

A 23-year-old woman who, while fleeing with a stolen computer, threw a cup of hot coffee into an elderly woman’s face, has received a jail sentence.  
Cheyenne Sommerley Tilley, who pleaded guilty in February to a charge of robbery and four counts of breaching a conditional sentence order, received a five-month jail sentence Monday in Lethbridge provincial court.
Tilley was not in her Raymond residence on three occasions in March 2020, contrary to conditions of a 12-month conditional sentence order she received only days earlier.
On March 11, barely a week into her CSO, she committed a robbery at the Lethbridge Public Library, and four days later she was involved in a hit and run collision in Lethbridge. Then on March 29 she was caught in Cranbrook, B.C. The fourth breach of her CSO was for failing to report to her probation officer over several months.
Tilley was charged with robbery after she attempted to steal a laptop computer from the library during a film festival. Tilley grabbed the computer and tried to conceal it under her arm, then grabbed a couple cups of hot coffee and left the room. She was confronted by one of the organizers, however, a 73-year-old woman, who explained the laptop belonged to the library. Tilley claimed it was her’s, and when the older woman argued with her, Tilley threw the hot coffee in her face, causing first-degree burns.
As Tilley fled upstairs she was confronted by a 78-year-old woman, at whom Tilley threw the second cup of hot coffee. A security guard heard the commotion and managed to wrestle the laptop away from Tilley before she ran away.
The incident was caught on video surveillance, and the police officer investigating the matter recognized Tilley when her mother brought her to the police station four days later to report a hit and run her daughter had been involved in using her mother’s vehicle.
Crown Prosecutor Clayton Giles recommended Monday that Tilley be sentenced to nine months in jail for the robbery, and that the 12-month CSO Tilley received last year be collapsed and she be made to serve the sentence in actual jail.
A CSO is considered a custodial sentence, but it allows an offender to serve the sentence in the community, typically under house arrest, followed by curfew.
Giles said Tilley failed to obey the CSO, and never served any custodial time for her offences.
“It’s as though she never went to jail,” Giles said.
Lethbridge lawyer Vincent Guinan recommended a six-month sentence for the robbery, and asked Judge Jerry LeGrandeur to not take any action on the breached conditional sentence, but simply allow it to resume from the date of the breach.
LeGrandeur, who acknowledged Tilley’s drug addiction and other significant challenges in her life, sentenced her to five months in jail for the robbery, but gave her full credit for time she spent in pre-trial custody, which concludes that sentence. LeGrandeur also collapsed 60 days of Tilley’s conditional sentence, a portion of which she will also be given credit for time spent in pre-trial custody. She will serve the remainder of the CSO under house arrest and curfew as previously ordered.
Tilley must also submit a sample of her DNA for the National DNA Databank, and she is prohibited from possessing certain weapons for 10 years, and others for life.

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