NWT man’s sentence for firearms charges reduced due to justice error

An NWT Supreme Court judge says “lessons should be learned” from a recent case where an error led to a man being wrongfully kept in custody.

In September, Justice Louise Charbonneau sentenced Trent T’seleie, 29, to 1,135 days’ imprisonment, or a little more than three years.

T’seleie was convicted of six firearms-related charges following trial, the most serious being unlawful possession of a restricted, loaded firearm in Yellowknife in May 2023.

With credit for time served in pre-trial custody, T’seleie had two years less a day of that sentence left to serve. That is the maximum amount of time that would allow T’seleie to finish serving his sentence in the NWT rather than a federal prison down south, as first reported by CKLB.

Beyond accounting for time served, Charbonneau said she reduced T’seleie’s sentence by 30 days as a remedy for an error that led to him being kept in custody in July 2024.

According to Charbonneau’s decision, T’seleie had been released on the Yellowknife firearm charges when he was arrested again over an unrelated incident in Norman Wells.

When a justice of the peace issued an order committing T’seleie to jail on those charges, they erroneously included both the Yellowknife charges and the Norman Wells charges.

The following month, the Norman Wells charges against T’seleie were stayed. While he should have been released from custody at that point, he was returned to the Yellowknife jail as the order incorrectly included his outstanding Yellowknife charges.

‘What happened here needs to be taken seriously’

Following some effort by T’seleie’s lawyer, he was released from custody sometime the following day, largely due to the fact that his lawyer was able to obtain an audio recording of his hearing before the justice of the peace.

Charbonneau concluded that more should have be done to address the issue during court in Norman Wells. She noted that everyone who works in the justice system has a responsibility to be proactive when such issues arise.

Charbonneau found, however, that there was “no bad faith or gross negligence on the part of anyone involved.”

She said while mistakes can happen, “the key is having a mechanism to ensure that they are caught.”

“Depriving someone of their freedom is a serious matter. What happened here needs to be taken seriously, and steps need to be taken to avoid a repetition of it,” she said.

Charbonneau recommended implementing a standard approach in which court staff are directed to bring this type of issue to the attention of a judge, or a process that would allow easier access to court recordings in exceptional or urgent situations.

While T’seleie’s lawyer, Jessie Casebeer, argued that her client’s sentence should be reduced by one year due to the issue, Charbonneau said that would result in a disproportionately low sentence considering the seriousness of the firearms charges.

She agreed with Crown prosecutor Nakita McFadden that a 30-day reduction would be an appropriate remedy.

‘There could have been disastrous consequences’

T’seleie was arrested on the firearms charges outside the Fort Gary apartments on Yellowknife’s Gitzel Street in late May 2023.

An RCMP officer had been surveilling the building as part of a drug investigation and had information that T’seleie may have been in possession of a gun. When the officer saw T’seleie return to the area, he called for backup and said T’seleie “seemed to be getting nervous” when he heard sirens approaching.

The officer then saw T’seleie crouching by a truck in the parking lot and subsequently arrested him. A short time later, one of the officers who arrived as backup found a loaded handgun in the wheel well of the truck.

Following trial, Charbonneau concluded that T’seleie had been in possession of and then abandoned the gun in the wheel well. T’seleie later told the author of a pre-sentencing report that he had been carrying the gun for self-protection.

Charbonneau described T’seleie’s crimes as “extremely serious,” noting the inherent risk of carrying a loaded gun, the “alarming increase” of firearm-related crime in Yellowknife, and the danger of abandoning a loaded handgun in a residential area.

“Who knows where this handgun could have ended up. It could have ended up in the hands of a child. There could have been disastrous consequences,” she said.

A possible turning point

In sentencing T’seleie, Charbonneau also considered his background and prospects for rehabilitation.

According to a pre-sentencing report, T’seleie described his childhood as “rough,” said he was exposed to alcohol abuse and violence, and had to dress and feed himself and get himself to school. He said he began consuming alcohol at a young age and, while living in Yellowknife, began using hard drugs and got involved in a “risky and unhealthy lifestyle.”

T’seleie said he has a strong connection to his Indigenous culture and his parents are now sober and supportive.

Defence lawyer Casebeer said T’seleie has completed a substance abuse management program and attended schooling while at the North Slave Correctional Complex in Yellowknife. She said this could be a turning point for him.

Casebeer argued that her client should be sentenced to three years’ imprisonment while Crown lawyer McFadden recommended a sentence of four years.

Charbonneau said the “core issue” for her in determining T’seleie’s sentence was whether he should be allowed to serve the remainder of his sentence in the NWT.

She said while McFadden’s proposed sentence was not excessive and she did not want to send the wrong message to the public about the seriousness of illegally possessing a loaded handgun, she also did not want to “crush Mr T’seleie’s prospects and hope for rehabilitation.”

“I am simply not convinced that having him go to a southern federal penitentiary is necessary or is most likely to have positive results, especially given that he has demonstrated a willingness to access some of the programming that is available here,” she concluded.

Charbonneau said she hoped T’seleie would continue to access programming and use his traditional and firefighting skills to lead a productive life and no longer engage in a risky and unhealthy lifestyle.

She said if he ends up before the courts again, it will become increasingly difficult for him to ask for leniency.