Jailed for coke, heroin, meth

Photo: Nicholas Johansen

Shelden Harris was sentenced to three years in jail Friday for five counts of trafficking drugs.

A 33-year-old father-to-be will be serving a three-year jail sentence when his child is born for trafficking large amounts of five different types of drugs in 2014.

Shelden Harris was arrested in the early hours of Oct. 10, after police had staked out his home on Crawford Road the night before and witnessed him packaging powder into baggies in his kitchen.

After his arrest, police searched his home and in the trunk of an Audi A8 parked in the garage, they found 1.1 kilograms of cocaine, 210 grams of heroin, 306 grams of methamphetamine, 403 grams of hash and 464 grams of a drug known as TFMPP.

TFMPP is sometimes sold as an alternative to MDMA or ecstasy, and was first made illegal in Canada in 2012.

The total street value of the drugs found totalled just under $230,000.

Police also found ammunition for several different types of guns, but no firearms were found. Additionally, an industrial pill press, two electronic scales and phenacetin, which can be used to cut cocaine, were all found in the house.

Harris was released on bail following his arrest and has been living in Surrey, where he grew up, for the past two and a half years.

Harris's defence lawyer, Cory Armour, told the court Harris had been employed as an operator of oil rigging equipment in Brooks, Alta., but lost his job sometime between 2010 and 2012 when the downturn in the economy impacted oil jobs.

“He had been making very good money up there ... he got used to living a certain lifestyle,” Armour said. 

When he lost his job in Alberta, he turned to the drug trade in Kelowna to maintain his lifestyle.

While Harris apologized to the court for his actions, Justice Gray said she didn't feel Harris had a “real appreciation” of the impacts of his crimes.

“You may well have distributed drugs which resulted in one or more people dying from an overdose,” Justice Gray said. “You may have distributed drugs which led a casual or first-time drug user to become a drug addict, leading to the desperate life of a drug addict, which usually involves crime and often involves violence.”

Since his arrest, Harris met his now-fiancé, who is pregnant with their child.

“You must stay away from the criminal lifestyle and the lure of easy money raised by preying on the misery of drug addicts,” Justice Gray told Harris following her sentencing. “I hope that the pleasures of fatherhood and family will help you maintain a law-abiding lifestyle once you're released from prison.”

Despite the Crown's position that Harris should serve four years, Justice Gray sentenced Harris to three years, along with a 10-year weapons prohibition. She also ruled that Harris will forfeit the Audi A8, where the drugs were found, as it is “offence-related property.”

Harris hugged his fiancé, mother and sister following his sentencing, and was then taken into custody.