BARRIE - A Sudbury man, Jordan Cole, has been sentenced to five years in prison for gun, weapons and other charges relating to a bizarre incident that shut down Highway 400 north of Barrie almost two years ago as police scoured the area for him.
“Guns are a terrible problem,” said Superior Court Justice Suzan Fraser, in accepting a joint submission on sentencing from Crown Attorney Carlynne Bell and Cole’s lawyer, Robert Yasskin.
“They are weapons of mass destruction in our society.”
Cole pleaded guilty last week just as his trial was about to start and the Crown was about to call witnesses, some of whom were waiting outside court to give evidence.
The 27-year-old, who worked in the construction and mining industry before his life started to unravel two years ago, abruptly exited a taxi on Highway 400 on the evening of Sept. 16, 2023.
Court heard that Cole left behind a gun and $3,000 in the cab, which turned out to be just a small portion of illicit material police soon found beside the highway.
Police shut down the busy highway to search for Cole. By the time he was arrested several hours later, they had found an additional $15,000, cocaine and another gun.
In total, police seized 456 grams of cocaine, two guns and $18,000 in the bust, court heard.
Cole took the rap for all of it, but no reason was offered either on Thursday or at his guilty plea last week why he suddenly exited the cab. He had told the cabbie to take him to Sudbury before fleeing near the Mount St. Louis exit.
Yasskin told Fraser, in his submission, about the trauma Cole had experienced in his childhood, including watching his stepfather get shot in a home invasion.
A young boy at the time, Cole was called upon to help administer aid to him before first responders arrived. His stepfather survived, court heard, but another friend he tried to save later in life did not, dying of a drug overdose, said Yasskin.
Cole has been diagnosed with PTSD, ADHD and general anxiety. Part of his reasoning for agreeing to a plea and foregoing a pre-sentence report is to expedite the process to enter a federal penitentiary to access programming for his issues, court heard.
“These years can be just a blip for him,” Yasskin told Fraser, in reference to his client’s descent into serious criminality after living a largely productive life despite difficult circumstances.
“There’s a lot of possibility for Mr. Cole.”
Fraser, striking a more personal tone in addressing Cole directly, urged him to seek help for his various issues.
“Sometimes you need to swallow (your) pride,” Fraser told him.
Cole has been in custody at Central North Correctional Centre in Penetanguishene since his arrest. That period of detention amounts to 957 days of total credit with enhancements that are applied for pre-sentence custody. It leaves Cole with about 29 months left to serve.
He is also subject to a forfeiture order, a weapons ban and must submit a sample of his DNA.