A serial armed robber from the Yukon who once escaped custody by running shoeless from a Whitehorse courtroom was arrested at a Burnaby SkyTrain station last week.
Richard Linklater, 35, was under a 10-year longterm supervision order when he was caught by Transit Police forcing his way through a faregate at the Edmonds SkyTrain station last Thursday, according to a police press release.
He initially lied about his name, police said, but eventually gave his real name, leading to the discovery of a warrant.
Linklater became “very agitated” when he was told he was going to be arrested, according to police, and told officers they would have to take him “the hard way.”
When extra officers arrived, however, he was taken into custody without incident.
A search revealed Linklater was carrying a quantity of drug paraphernalia, police said.
Linklater has 50 adult convictions, including eight violent offences to his credit, according to court documents.
Linklater stayed illegally at large for nearly a month in 2015, after he ran out of a Whitehorse courtroom shoeless as a justice of the peace was giving reason for detaining him.
After he pleaded guilty to that offence as well as counts of robbery, fraud, driving while disqualified and breaking probation, the Yukon Territorial Court imposed a longterm supervision order on him in February.
The Crown initially sought to have him declared a dangerous offender, which would have kept him behind bars indefinitely, but Crown counsel later joined Linklater's lawyer in calling for the 10-year longterm supervision order.
Linklater had pledged to get mental health treatment and stop using drugs.
“…There is a reasonable possibility of eventual control of the risk of future offending behaviour in the community,” Judge Heino Lilles stated in his decision.
