BUNGLED GROW RIP NETS PRISON TIME

Violent Aspect Swayed Decision

Samuel Glennie, 20, could have been taking post-secondary classes
right now. Instead, he'll be spending time in prison for his part in a
bungled grow-rip in Chilliwack last summer.

On Tuesday, he was the fourth and final person from a Teskey Road
grow-rip to be sentenced. Glennie's three co-accused received federal
prison sentences in April of between five years and four and a half
years.

Glennie's sentencing was delayed to allow time for a pre-sentence
report and a psychological assessment. He has no criminal record and
faces some "developmental impairments," specifically a condition known
as autism spectrum disorder, which has provided social and academic
challenges for him. Still, the reports noted he is a "high
functioning" person with an aptitude for multimedia arts and was not
mentally handicapped, only immature for his age and highly
impressionable.

"Mr. Glennie is clearly aware of what he did on this occasion," Judge
Thomas Crabtree said.

The judge was sympathetic to Glennie's challenges, which included
missing out on post-secondary classes because an administrative error
that delayed his secondary school graduation. He considered a number
of mitigating factors for the accused, including the support his
family in Coquitlam, but because of the serious nature of the offence
and Glennie's breach of release conditions, he could not impose a
conditional sentence.

"It's a serious offence and involves violence," Crabtree said. "It's a
concern for any community."

Though he did not give a conditional sentence, the judge said
Glennie's situation was an "exceptional circumstance" and he needed to
impose a sentence at the low end of the range. "There is great
potential for you, Mr. Glennie, to do things in the future," he said.

Glennie received a two-year prison sentence with eight months credit
for time spent in custody. He will also face two years of probation, a
10-year firearm ban and must provide a DNA sample.

Glennie and his co-accused, Clarence Carvery, Markus Dennison and
Arold Reddy, were arrested following the grow-rip on the morning of
July 27, 2008. They had left a crack house in Surrey to rob a supposed
marijuana growing operation on Teskey Road, armed with a sword,
handgun, crowbar and a machete. There was apparently another person
behind the scenes who masterminded the operation but who was never
named by the accused or arrested.

The four had trouble restraining the male occupant at Teskey Road and
could not communicate with him because he was not conversant in
English. However, they did not injure the man. A bigger problem for
them was that the house was in the process of becoming a grow-op but
had not yet produced a crop.

Police arrived on the scene quickly after an off-duty officer that
lived across the street observed the four kick in the front door of
the grow-op house.