A Rocky Mountain House man was sentenced to more than two years in prison for a 2015 crime spree throughout Central Alberta.
The sentence was handed down about 18 months after Cody Cutter, 26, pleaded guilty to four charges stemming from a crime spree through Didsbury, Olds and Sundre.
Cutter turned himself into Sundre RCMP on Feb. 11, 2015, just one day after the spree occurred. On Nov. 5 2105 Cutter pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted robbery, theft of a motor vehicle and possession of stolen property over $5,000.
However, sentencing submissions were not heard in Didsbury provincial court until Feb. 8, 2017. Late last week, provincial court judge Pat McIlhargey sentenced Cutter to a prison term of two years, three months followed by two years of probation.
The spree started early Feb. 10, 2015 morning when at 5:38 a.m., Cutter entered the Didsbury Fas Gas. He approached the counter and asked the lone female clerk for two cartons of cigarettes. When the clerk asked for Cutter to show identification, he pulled a pistol from behind his back and placed it on the counter.
The clerk again asked for identification and Cutter said he “needed the cigarettes as his life was on the line.” When the clerk asked why, Cutter said “it just is.”
The clerk did not provide the cigarettes and Cutter ran out of the store and into the passenger side of a waiting truck. The truck was reported stolen earlier that morning, it was taken from a fenced compound and driven through a locked gate at 4:30 a.m.
Less than an hour later, Cutter entered a Shell gas station in Olds and, with his gun drawn, demanded all the cartons of cigarettes and money from the lone female clerk. Shocked, the clerk did not respond and Cutter left the store and fled the scene.
Using GPS tracking, police found the stolen truck near Sundre. A brief chase ensued, but police backed off. The truck was found with an empty gas tank near a rural acreage. Two vehicles were stolen from that location, included an SUV that was later found two blocks from Cutter’s residence in Rocky Mountain House.
A day later he turned himself in, saying he stole the SUV to get back to Rocky Mountain House. He said the pistol was a BB gun and was provided to him, police did not recover it.
McIlhargey originally arrived at a three-and-a-half year prison sentence, but took into consideration court delays and Cutter’s fetal alcohol spectrum disorder diagnosis. That reduced the sentence to 27 months.
mcrawford@www.reddeeradvocate.com