10-year prison term for prolific offender
Garnett Karl Vroom, 39, of Fredericton, says he was so high, he doesn’t remember his crimes, included fleecing his grandmother, stealing cars, pointing firearm at couple
“I was living in a reality that just didn’t exist,” a Fredericton drug addict told a court Thursday to explain a long string of crimes, most of which he said he doesn’t even remember committing.
Garnett Karl Vroom, 39, of Oak Avenue, appeared in Fredericton provincial court by video conference from jail Thursday for a sentencing hearing for more than 30 offences in all, spanning from December 2021 to May 2023.
Crown prosecutor Rodney Jordan said the most serious of those crimes arose May 18, 2023, when Cindy Newman, the owner of a stolen Volkswagen Jetta, called police when she tracked down her car.
Newman had reported the vehicle stolen earlier that morning, court heard, but then she got information about it being sighted on Fredericton’s north side.
She called police to advise she’d found it in a parking lot on Irvine Street and had blocked the Jetta in, urging officers to arrive quickly.
Vroom was at the wheel of the stolen car, the prosecutor said, and he was accompanied by his partner, Sara Wood.
But before police arrived, he said, Vroom drove up onto the lawn of the property and onto the street to get around Newman. She followed, court heard, but Vroom drove fast and lost her.
Lucas Thebeau and Nicole Peterson, who were helping Newman look for the car, soon spotted the stolen Jetta and confronted Vroom, Jordan said, but Vroom yelled at them to leave him alone and pulled a sawed-off firearm from inside the car and pointed it at them.
They backed off and he took off again, court heard, and the couple quickly relayed what had happened to police, who were still searching for the stolen car and the suspect.
“They both appeared to be shaken by this incident,” the prosecutor said.
Given the new information about the firearm, he said, police stepped up efforts to locate and detain Vroom.
The Jetta was spotted again, headed outside the city limit, Jordan said, and the RCMP was brought in as well. A canine unit joined the search, he said, as was an RCMP helicopter.
The chase outside the city, in the area of Royal Road, continued, court heard, with the Jetta reaching speeds as high as 200 kilometres per hour.
‘You’re not gonna shoot me’
Traffic was limited in the rural area, Jordan said, but Vroom headed back toward Fredericton, and there were more cars and people at risk.
Vroom almost hit someone and nearly crashed in a ditch, he said, as he continued his dangerous and desperate flight from authorities.
The Jetta eventually came to a stop, the prosecutor said, and officers, with sidearms drawn, approached Vroom, who had emerged from the car.
Vroom looked at an officer who had his firearm pointed at the suspect, court heard, and he said, “You’re not gonna shoot me.”
That’s when the offender fled on foot, Jordan said, but he did so over dangerous terrain with a lot of fallen dead trees. Consequently, he said, the officer broke off the foot chase, deciding it was too dangerous.
Fortunately, Vroom was spotted shortly thereafter in a nearby field and was arrested, court heard.
When police searched the Jetta, they found numerous firearms as well as stolen property taken in a number of break-ins around the city.
There was a sawed-off rifle in the car itself, and five other firearms - rifles, shotguns and a handgun - in the trunk, the prosecutor said, noting one of the rifles had a serial number that had been defaced.
Among the stolen property found in the Jetta, he said, were four chequebooks, a Go-Pro camera, a digital camera, two cancelled passports and $26 in U.S. currency.
All told, police found almost $7,500 worth of stolen items in the car, court heard.
Vroom also admitted to those break-ins.
Grandmother bilked for thousands
The discovery of stolen chequebooks in the car didn’t represent the first such offence Vroom had committed.
Court also heard that in 2022, Vroom twice stayed with his grandmother, who was trying to help him out, and both times, he stole from her.
Jordan said Dianne Stilwell called the Fredericton Police Force in February 2022 to report that her grandson, Vroom, had defrauded her.
He’d been staying with her the month before, the prosecutor said, and she told police she’d let Vroom do so because suffered from a serious drug addiction.
She discovered that her chequebook had been stolen and 23 cheques had been cashed on her account for a total of $5,280, Jordan said, all made out to Vroom or people with whom he was associated.
Stilwell called police again in late June 2022, he said, advising the same thing had happened again. Vroom stayed with her again from May to July of that year, court heard.
She discovered $13,000 had been withdrawn on her Visa credit card, the prosecutor said, and another $5,000 in stolen cheques had been cashed fraudulently again.
The victim wasn’t out the entire amount this time around, though.
“She got reimbursed for a lot of the loss,” Jordan said.
Newcomers victimized as well
The prosecutor noted Vroom also had a hand in a scam in which a car that was reported as stolen was sold to buyers who ultimately learned the vehicle had exchanged hands illegally.
In October 2022, he said, Joseph Fay reported his 2016 Toyota Corolla had been stolen. The car and the keys went missing when he was doing drugs at a party, he’d told police.
The city police investigation uncovered the fact that the car somehow changed hands several times, court heard, with the title being transferred despite it being stolen.
Ultimately, police tracked down the people who bought the car, Jordan said, and as they were newcomers to the area from the Middle East, an interpreter had to be brought to communicate with them.
They told officers they’d bought the car for $3,000 from an unknown male “who was selling it for a friend,” the prosecutor said.
Because the car was sold illegally, court heard, the newcomer family was out more than $3,000, as they’d also paid to have the car professionally cleaned.
They now report losing trust in people.
While Vroom admitted to scamming the victims, he said it was never stolen.
“Fay gave us the car. I didn’t steal it from him,” the offender said Thursday, noting Fay handed over the car to settle a drug debt.
“I was under the impression he was allowed to sell it.”
Judge Mélanie Poirier LeBlanc said she couldn’t accept Vroom’s guilty plea to taking the car without consent, given when he’d said, and that would necessitate a trial on that aspect of the case.
But Jordan decided to withdraw that count, noting it wouldn’t alter the overall sentence he and defence lawyer Wanda Severns were jointly recommending. That allowed the sentencing hearing to proceed.
Court also heard Vroom shoplifted at the northside Canadian Tire store and assaulted a staff member by shoving them out of the way as he fled the business, got busted with other stolen cars with stolen licence plates on them and fled repeatedly from police when confronted.
Vroom was also being sentenced Thursday for numerous related breaches of probation and violations of release conditions.
Court heard he’s been in custody since May 2023.
Jordan filed Vroom’s prior criminal history with the court, noting it was significant and that there were numerous similar offences on it.
He and Severns suggested an overall prison term of 10 years, reduced to account for the time he’s already served on remand.
‘Garnett does have a huge heart’
Poirier Leblanc also heard from Vroom’s family.
“I just want to apologize on behalf of the family,” said the offender’s brother, Forest Shaw.
He noted that Vroom’s insistence that women who were with him when he was arrested on numerous occasions knew nothing of his crimes shows that deep down, he’s a loyal person.
Shaw also explained that his brother was in a particular dark place during the period in question, as their mother had died recently.
“She took her own life,” he said, noting Vroom didn’t handle it well at all.
“He’d been under unimaginable amounts of stress over the past three years,” said sister Janine Brooks.
She pointed out that in addition to his mother’s suicide, Vroom lost his grandfather, with whom he’d been quite close, and his grandmother has developed Alzheimer’s.
“Garnett does have a huge heart,” Brooks said, insisting he’s a good person.
Shaw urged the court to arrange for rehab, noting that addiction drives his brother’s behaviour.
“He doesn’t know what else to do other than this stuff,” he said.
Brooks said the family has tried repeatedly to get Vroom help for his mental-health and addiction issues, but it’s just not available.
Severns said her client is essentially institutionalized at this point and has the mentality of a teenager.
“I need the court to understand that I take responsibility for the things I’ve done,” a tearful Vroom told the judge.
“I snapped after my mom committed suicide.”
He said he doesn’t remember most of these crimes.
“I was in such bad shape,” he said. “I was living in a reality that just didn’t exist.”
Vroom said his actions flowed from his despair and he thinks about the harm he’s done every day.
Poirier LeBlanc accepted the joint recommendation, imposing the 10-year sentence.
She noted, though, that Vroom had already served 269 days in custody, which translated into the equivalent of 404 days after the customary 1½-to-one remand credit formula is applied. As such, the prison term was to be reduced by that much, the judge said, making his sentence going forward eight years, 10 months and 22 days.
Poirier LeBlanc also ordered the collection of a DNA sample for inclusion in a criminal database, a prohibition against possessing firearms and other weapons for life, a two-year driving ban following the completion of Vroom’s sentence and forfeiture of the items seized from him during his many arrests.
In closing Thursday, the judge emphasized the gravity of Vroom’s crimes, especially those committed May 18.
“You put your life in harm’s way that day… as well as anybody on the road that day,” she said.
Poirier LeBlanc accepted that his remorse is genuine as well as his desire to deal with his many problems.
She said the federal-prison system offers extensive programming and counselling, but ultimately, it’s up to Vroom to avail himself of them.
“That rests with you, sir,” the judge said. Nobody can make you do that.”
Don MacPherson can be contacted at ftonindependent@gmail.com.
Thanks for a well written and balanced report.
Making excuses for this guy makes them enablers. And it should have been at least 15 years.