A Sackville man was sentenced to a total of seven years in prison on Monday, for three sets of drug and weapons crimes dating back to April 2021.
39-year-old Colt LeBlanc was in a Moncton courtroom, where he agreed to facts laid out by federal and provincial Crown prosecutors, outlining three separate search and seizure incidents in 2021, 2022, and 2023.
LeBlanc’s sentence also includes a 10-year prohibition on possessing weapons, a DNA test, and the forfeit of more than $155,000 in cash that was seized by police during the incidents.
LeBlanc’s lawyer Michel Des Neiges said his client had spent most of his life without troubles. Des Neiges said LeBlanc, “had a pretty normal childhood” and that he, “did well in school, and played sports, and was getting along with his young adult life.” But in the last few years, said Des Neiges, “things have gone sideways.”
Des Neiges told the court that LeBlanc was planning to join programs while in the prison system, and intended to seek work as a carpenter once he is eventually released. Des Neiges said that LeBlanc, “does not want this to be dead time for him.”
The judge offered LeBlanc the opportunity to address the court, but he refused. As crown prosecutors read the facts behind his charges, LeBlanc mostly nodded his agreement to the judge.
There were no victim impact statements read at the hearing.
Search and seizures date back to April 2021
Federal crown prosecutor Nathalie Lajoie told the court how police were called to LeBlanc’s former home on Upper Aboujagane Road just over three years ago due to complaints of a high-powered laser pointed at airplanes in the area. The initial search of LeBlanc’s home led to a second search warrant, which turned up roughly $19,000 in cash, a drone, as well as amounts of cocaine, methamphetamine and hydromorphone.
Both LeBlanc and his former partner Carrie Ann Sears were charged with drug and weapons offences, but charges against Sears were withdrawn last week.
LeBlanc originally pleaded not guilty, and a trial was scheduled for early 2023, but before that trial took place he was arrested and charged in two more drug related incidents.
Lajoie told the court that in February 2022, police had received a tip that LeBlanc and another Sackville woman, Cheryl Trenholm, were selling cocaine and methamphetamine, and so followed them from LeBlanc’s father’s home in Sackville to a Walmart parking lot in Moncton. That’s where they stopped the pair, searched their vehicle, and arrested them. Lajoie said LeBlanc refused to get out of the vehicle and had to be “physically removed” by police officers. She also said that a search turned up drugs and $40,000 in cash. Several baggies full of cash were in LeBlanc’s pockets, and about $15,000 was concealed in the collar of his jacket. The search also turned up amounts of cocaine and methamphetamine.
Trenholm later pled guilty to a simple possession charge and was given a three-month conditional sentence. According to reports in the Times and Transcript, Trenholm’s lawyer told the court she was addicted to illegal drugs and was being exploited by LeBlanc to serve as his driver.
The third arrest and seizure of drugs and weapons took place in Sackville on Pond Shore Road at the home of LeBlanc’s grandfather, Reginald Sears. In the early morning of November 22, 2023, the RCMP’s Emergency Response Team raided the house at 106 Pond Shore Road, and arrested Leblanc along with two other men who were later released.
Provincial crown prosecutor Denis Sawyer told the court that the main target of the investigation leading to the raid was Colt LeBlanc, and as part of the search police found nine different weapons including an assault rifle and handgun. LeBlanc was under a court order not to possess weapons at the time.
Lajoie said that a search of LeBlanc’s bedroom turned up more than a kilogram of cocaine, over 500 methamphetamine pills, 56,000 illegal cigarettes and over $95,000 dollars in cash stored in a safe.
The cash from all seizures totalled over $155,000, and Lajoie said that, as well as most of the other property seized, would be forfeited to the crown as part of the sentence.
The total of seven years in LeBlanc’s sentence includes multiple provincial and federal sentences, some being served consecutively and some being served concurrently. Lajoie also told that court that two sentences were reduced by a year each to account for the total length of time LeBlanc would serve.
Because of time already served in custody, LeBlanc will be given roughly five months credit on his seven year sentence. He could be eligible for parole in two years.
Evidence also used in SCAN Act eviction
Monday’s sentencing puts an end to an investigation first started by police in March 2020, but it’s not the first consequence of that investigation.
In May 2021, the province used evidence obtained by police in their April 2021 search to evict LeBlanc and Sears from their home under a Community Safety Order, a civil action enabled by provincial legislation called the Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods (SCAN) Act.
During the same time period, suspicious fires were set at several homes in Upper Sackville. In early May and early June 2021, two homes near the intersection of Pond Shore Road and Upper Aboujagane Road were burned, and then in July, Leblanc’s vacant home was burned down by arsonists.
Before he was evicted from it on June 7, Leblanc’s home had also been the site of an arson attempt and assault against Henry Pottie, one of the men who was later implicated in the murder of Jamie Leard on May 25, 2021. After Pottie was sentenced for manslaughter this past September, crown prosecutor Maurice Blanchard said that drugs had played a major role in that violent crime, specifically noting the adverse effects of methamphetamine.
