Sixteen months after city cops caught Charles Carricato passed out in his vehicle on Canada Day 2023, a judge sentenced him to prison time, calling it "a wake-up call."
The 50-year-old accused faced three charges stemming from the July 1 incident where police found two unresponsive people in a Silverado truck in the 700 block of Wellington Street East shortly before 8 a.m.
Carricato was charged with three counts of possession of a controlled substance – methamphetamine, purple fentanyl and cocaine – for the purpose of trafficking.
Last Wednesday he appeared in the Superior Court of Justice, where he pleaded not guilty to the charges, but guilty to the lesser included offence of simple possession.
Federal prosecutor Lindsay Marshall accepted his pleas.
Justice Michael Varpio heard testimony from the officers, dispatched to the scene, who said Carricato, the driver, appeared to be intoxicated.
They found a scale, packaging material and multiple substances, which Marshall called "serious highly addictive drugs."
Carricato had 9.11 grams of fentanyl, 11.4 grams of methamphetamine and 13.75 grams of cocaine.
The Crown and defence lawyer Eric McCooeye recommended a two-year penitentiary term, less credit for the time his client has spent behind bars since his arrest.
Both acknowledged his lengthy criminal record, and agreed his pre-sentence custody is the equivalent of 177 days.
The accused has been in custody since July 26 of this year, Marshall said.
Carricato's guilty pleas saved court time, and "he's been in custody for some time now," McCooeye said.
"You have a long record and have been around the block," Varpio told Carricato. "I'm not going to spend time lecturing you."
The judge then described the sentence as a wake-up call for the community's safety.
"You and the community need to know fentanyl is a tremendously dangerous drug," Varpio said.
A two-year federal penitentiary sentence, in light of Carricato's record, and the quantity and type of drugs is "right on."
With the 177-day pre-sentence credit, Carricato faces a further 543 days behind bars in a provincial jail.
At the end of the day, clearly a substance was driving you to this point and you might want to think about that, Varpio told him, adding whatever it is, purple fentanyl isn't the answer.