Lengthy jail sentence avoided with plea to lesser charge

By Delon Shurtz - Lethbridge Herald on March 7, 2024.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDdshurtz@lethbridgeherald.com

A 31-year-old Lethbridge man charged with robbery following a violent attempt to steal a woman’s belongings, was given a break when he was allowed to plead guilty to a lesser charge, instead.
Christopher Anthony DeGeorgio pleaded guilty Wednesday in Lethbridge court of justice to a charge of attempted theft, reducing what could have been a lengthy jail sentence to one of only 30 days.
Just before noon on Feb. 15 of this year DeGeorgio approached a woman who had gotten onto a city transit bus and asked for money. The woman refused but DeGeorgio kept bothering her, then followed her when she got off the bus in the 200 block of 28 Street South.
“The male grabbed onto her bag and tried to take it,” Crown Prosecutor Marshall Gourlay told court. “she held onto the bag until she heard someone say they were calling the police.”
Gourlay said the woman was not injured and did not know DeGeorgio, who fled on foot empty-handed.
The person who yelled was driving by the bus stop when she saw two people fighting over a bag. She stopped her vehicle and yelled she was calling police, and DeGeorgio dropped the bag and ran.
Police contacted city transit and received video footage from the bus, and photos were issued to other officers. One of the officers recognized the suspect from previous dealings with him, and an arrest warrant was issued after police were unable to find him.
DeGeorgio also pleaded guilty to a charge of theft stemming from an incident on Oct 29 of last year when he and a woman walked into Dairy Queen on the West side, grabbed a couple of frozen cakes and a Treatzza Pizza, worth about $130, then took off without paying.
Employees told police the two suspects looked at the cakes for 10-20 minutes, and when they began walking toward the door one of the employees told them they needed to pay for the treats. However, DeGeorgio and the woman continued walking away.
About 90 minutes later police attended a liquor store in the 100 block of 3 Avenue South where two men were fighting. The officers noticed in the back of a truck a bag containing the treats taken earlier from Dairy Queen.
“The facts are admitted and I hope he understands how close up to the wall up he was with respect to the grabbing of the bag, and we appreciate it’s now an attempted theft,” said duty counsel lawyer Jeremy DeBow.
DeGeorgio was fined $400 for the theft of the DQ treats, but allowed to serve the default time of three days in jail, to run concurrently with the 30-day sentence. He was also credited for nine days he spent in custody after he was arrested, leaving a sentence of 21 days.

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