Cocaine, fentanyl dealer gets 3½ years in prison
Defence counsel for Lawrence O’Neil Bowmaster, 46, of Moncton, described client as “low-level” trafficker, arguing for lesser end of sentencing range sought by Crown
A Moncton man busted with 73 grams of cocaine by Fredericton police two years ago is headed to prison for 3½ years.
Lawrence O’Neil Bowmaster, 46, AKA Lawrence Berube, of Mountain Road in Moncton, appeared in Fredericton provincial court Wednesday for sentencing.
He’d previously pleaded guilty to July 7, 2021, counts of possessing fentanyl, cocaine and hydromorphone, all for the purpose of trafficking; driving while impaired by drugs; possessing less than $5,000 deemed to be the proceeds of crime; and driving while suspended.
At an earlier juncture in the case, court heard someone reported Bowmaster to police, prompting officers to locate him and to pull him over.
Police found 73 grams of cocaine, as well as much smaller quantities of the other drugs referred to in the charges.
Crown prosecutor Darlene Blunston submitted Bowmaster’s criminal record for the court’s consideration, noting that the offender had previously served time in federal prison for a number of charges, including several break-ins.
She said the New Brunswick Court of Appeal has ruled that traffickers of hard drugs can expect to serve time in prison for such offences, even if they’re first-time offenders. The substances found in Bowmaster’s possession certainly fit the bill, the prosecutor said, though he didn’t qualify as a first-time offender.
“He had some of those same drugs in his system [when arrested] as well,” Blunston said.
She recommended a prison term of three to five years, and she asked the court to order the forfeiture of the money seized from Bowmaster - $210 in Canadian currency.
Defence lawyer Spencer MacInnis said there’s no ignoring the significant amount of cocaine her client had on him when he was arrested, noting that 73 grams of cocaine is a lot.
But she reminded the court there was only a couple of hundreds dollars’ worth of the other illicit substances found.
“The other quantities of drugs were a lot lower,” she said.
While Bowmaster has a record and has been incarcerated in the federal system before, the defence lawyer said, he has no prior drug-trafficking convictions.
“He has been a long-time substance abuser,” MacInnis said, noting he started using cocaine when he was 18 and became addicted to opioids after he was in a car accident in his mid-20s.
He addressed those addictions, she said, but he had a relapse in 2020.
The defence lawyer said Bowmaster was a low-level player in the drug trade, and it’s not like he was running a major operation to reap major profits.
Her client, she said, is someone who was selling drugs to support his own habit, and that’s distinguishable from a hard-core dealer running a sophisticated operation.
Bowmaster had no scale, scoresheets or plastic baggies when he was arrested, MacInnis said. Furthermore, she said, her client’s arrest wasn’t the result of a long-running drug investigation, but rather a report to police.
“Someone called it in,” she said.
The defence sought a prison term of three years. MacInnis said her client is a contractor and has steady work and people in his employ.
“He is running his own business,” she said. “He is someone who is working and contributing to society.”
Bowmaster apologized to his family and friends Wednesday.
“I wish I weren’t here today,” he told the court.
Bowmaster was supposed to have been sentenced for these crimes earlier this year, but after parting ways with his original defence counsel - Legal Aid Services Commission staff lawyer Doug Smith - he told the court he wanted to withdraw his guilty pleas.
However, last week, MacInnis informed the court her client was abandoning that application.
“To say that his path to today is long would be understated,” said Judge Cameron Gunn as he rendered his decision on sentence Wednesday.
The mitigation of his guilty pleas was diminished somewhat by the drawn-out nature of the proceedings over the past year, the judge said, noting Bowmaster originally pleaded guilty to the charges last summer.
But ultimately, he said, the offender reached a point where he accepted the consequences of his actions.
Gunn said MacInnis spotlighted the gap in Bowmaster’s criminal record, which speaks to how he’s a different man than the one who was pulled over, high and holding a significant drug stash.
The judge acknowledged that Bowmaster’s addictions show he’s a victim of the same crimes for which he’s being sentenced.
“Every time you sold drugs… you did the same thing that was done to you,” he told the offender.
In addition to imposing a 3½-year prison term, Gunn also ordered Bowmaster to submit a DNA sample for inclusion in a criminal database, prohibited him from possessing firearms and other weapons for 10 years after his release from prison, and ordered the cash and other items seized at the time of his arrest forfeited to the Crown.
Don MacPherson can be contacted at ftonindependent@gmail.com.
He is not going to serve 3 and a half years in prison. He will be out in half that time. We need truth in sentencing instead of seeing these make believe numbers.