WINNIPEG - A Court of Queen's Bench judge has ruled against reducing a Winnipeg man’s sentence further than a mathematically necessary after he was convicted of stealing an ambulance while naked.
A Manitoba Court of Appeal determined that a miscalculation caused a judge to sentence 30-year-old Marlon Whincup to 30 months in jail, eight months more than the man was supposed to be given. After time served, the final sentence ended up being just over a year. But Whincup appealed remaining the 12-and-a-half-month jail stay, saying the judge shouldn’t have considered his methamphetamine intoxication to be an aggravating factor, and asked for the sentence to be reduced even further.
Whincup pleaded guilty to charges that included theft, dangerous and impaired driving, and breaching probation orders in relation to the case. The court heard he was naked and experiencing psychosis while high on meth in late May, and was observed by paramedics trying to climb out of a recycling bin near the corner of Furby St. and Notre Dame Ave. The ambulance stopped to help him, and at first he walked toward the medics, then hopped into the vehicle and drove away.
Court documents state Whincup proceeded to drive the ambulance at very high speed and in the wrong direction, forcing construction workers in the area to jump out of the way, before he crashed into a building. A cultural centre on Young St. was badly damaged, as was the $200,000 ambulance. Police say Whincup tried to flee the scene before they took him down with a Taser and arrested him.
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