WOULD-BE INTRUDER GETS THREE MONTHS

A Kingston man, whose determination to break into a Cliff Crescent
house came within millimetres of costing him his life, has been
sentenced to three months in jail and placed on probation for 18 months.

Matthew C. C. Jeffrey, 25, spent 45 days in pretrial custody before
pleading guilty this week in Kingston's Ontario Court of Justice to
breaking and entering and violating a probation order he'd received
less than three weeks before his latest crimes.

Assistant Crown attorney Ross Drummond told the court that Jeffrey and
an unknown male turned up at the home of a Cliff Crescent couple
around 6:41 p. m. on July 2 and started banging loudly on the front
door.

The occupants of the house, he said, were in the basement at the time
and later told police they'd initially thought the racket was being
made by their three-year-old son upstairs.

Eventually they went up to investigate, however, and Drummond told
Justice Paul Megginson they arrived on the main floor just in time to
hear a male voice say: "Come on, we can get in around back."

The woman immediately called 911, he told the judge, while her husband
armed himself with a pair of scissors. Drummond said they both
remained inside with the doors locked.

Megginson heard that Jeffrey then attempted to punch out a rear window
to gain entry, but it didn't break. Either he or his companion then
called to the couple inside their home, ordering them to: "Open up. I
have a gun," the judge was told.

When they didn't comply, Drummond said Jeffrey picked up a
long-handled garden implement from the yard and used it to smash a
hole in the glass, through which he shoved his head.

The male householder responded to the intrusion by slashing the
scissors across Jeffrey's chin and throat and Drummond said Jeffrey
pulled his head out of the window and fled.

Megginson was told by the Crown that police arrived not long after
and, observing blood around the broken window, decided to check
Kingston General Hospital's emergency department, which was where they
found Jeffrey.

Drummond said he initially denied involvement in the crime and claimed
to have injured himself during an epileptic seizure.

When it became evident that police intended to charge him, however,
the Crown said he pulled out his intravenous lines in a show of
bravura and insisted on being taken to the police station.

His agitation pulled out some of his stitches, however, and Drummond
said additional medical attention was required, at which point it was
discovered an artery in Jeffrey's neck had been nicked.

Jeffrey's lawyer, Dave Isbester, in speaking to the joint
recommendation on sentencing, told the judge his client wasn't
targeting strangers.

"Mr. Jeffrey felt there was a (marijuana) grow-op in that house," he
told Megginson, and he claims to have bought marijuana from the couple
who live there.

The lawyer also observed that his client had already paid a price for
his crime since "he took scissors directly to the throat and came
close to dying."