A 32-year-old Burnaby man who accidentally forgot a satchel with a loaded handgun in it at a Richmond Boston Pizza has been handed a two-and-a-half-year jail sentence.
Sepehr Motevalli was found guilty last October of possessing a loaded Ruger 9 mm handgun without a permit or licence, according to a B.C. Supreme Court ruling last month.
He had carried the gun in a satchel into the Boston Pizza on Aug. 21, 2015, when he went there with a woman and her mother, as well as some young children, according to the ruling.
When the group exited, the satchel with the loaded gun was left slung over the arm of the chair where Motevalli had been sitting.
“Mr. Motevalli did not testify at his trial, or in the sentencing hearing, and did not share with the probation officer who prepared the pre-sentence report any circumstances about how or why he obtained the gun, or why he had it with him, fully loaded, on August 21, 2015,” states the ruling by Justice George Macintosh.
The younger of the two women with Motevalli in the Boston Pizza, however, was the wife of a man police were investigating for possible money-laundering crimes, according to the ruling, and some of the evidence used to identify Motevalli came from “extensive surveillance” during that investigation.
Defence lawyer David Fai suggested Motevalli had been acting as a bodyguard, according to the ruling, but Macintosh said there was limited evidence to support that.
And, even if he had been acting as a bodyguard, that wouldn’t have helped his case, Macintosh said, citing another recent B.C. Supreme Court ruling: “The possession of a loaded weapon in these circumstances can only be to threaten or inflict harm or death.”
Crown prosecutor Anthony Toljanich called for a 40-month jail sentence for Motevalli. Fai recommended a 24-month term.
Handing down a 30-month sentence, Macintosh said Motevalli’s possession of the prohibited handgun in the Boston Pizza was “clearly” criminal and not an innocent mistake by a licensed gun owner who let his licence expire.
“From at least 2012 to the present, our Court of Appeal has spoken unequivocally and repeatedly of the need for substantial sentences for the unlawful possession of loaded prohibited firearms, like the semiautomatic Ruger 9mm handgun Mr. Motevalli had with him on August 21, 2015,” Macintosh said.
Motevalli, who was born in Iran and came to Canada with his family in 1998, had no prior criminal record.
