By Ian Holmes

Nanaimo man sentenced to 4.5 years for armed home invasion

Aug 14, 2017 | 10:08 PM

NANAIMO — A Nanaimo man known as a prolific offender has been handed four-and-a-half years in prison after tying up five people and threatening to kill them earlier this year.

Ashley Baird, 34, was sentenced by judge Brian Harvey in Provincial Court in Nanaimo on Monday on six charges Baird plead guilty to.

During sentencing, Harvey noted Baird knocked on the door of a Haliburton St. home on the evening of April 19 and pulled a sawed-off shotgun from his backpack after being let in by a woman.

Court heard five people in the home were held in place with zap straps while Baird demanded a safe belonging to a man who was murdered earlier the same day in Nanaimo’s Howard Johnson Hotel lobby. Harvey said the murder victim used to live at the Haliburton St. address and it was alleged the safe held $20,000 and a large amount of jewelry.

“The accused was threatening to kill all persons in the residence as he pointed the shotgun, loading it and unloading it and cocking the firing mechanism,” Harvey said.

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Court was told Baird confined the victims for 20 to 30 minutes and they managed to free themselves after he left.

One of the men in the home was assaulted by Baird, Court heard.

Harvey said Baird was eventually arrested six days later after he was tasered by police at a gas station in Victoria. Baird had a significant amount of drugs when he was arrested, inlcuding meth, heroin, cocaine and more than 1,400 doses of fentanyl, according to judge Harvey.

He said Baird’s previous record of violence played a role in the length of his sentence.

“The lasting harm these types of crimes have on persons are obvious and there was also a great potential for harm given the firearm present.”

However, Harvey also pointed out there were several mitigating factors in determining a sentence length, including a psychiatrist who diagnosed Baird with bi-polar disorder, PTSD and ADHD. Harvey stated other mitigating factors included Baird’s Indigenous heritage, pleading guilty early in the judicial process and showing remorse for his actions.

Baird was also given a lifetime weapons ban.

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