Sentencing for a man found guilty of possession of crack cocaine and obstruction after he attempted to conceal drugs will take place in Red Deer court next month.
Rodney Arens, 37, of Red Deer, previously pleaded guilty to impaired care and control of a motor vehicle, obstructing an officer and resisting arrest and failing to comply with conditions.
He pleaded not guilty to numerous drug-related charges including a trafficking charge which he was found not guilty of last week in Red Deer court.
The charges stem from Dec. 21st, 2013 after Sylvan Lake RCMP responded to a complaint of a possible impaired driver in the Town. Upon locating the parked and running vehicle at the Fas Gas on Main Street, police located the driver, slumped over the steering wheel. After waking the driver and speaking to him, he was arrested for impaired care or control of a motor vehicle.
Police have said after a search of the male and the vehicle, they located cash and crack cocaine and a small amount of marijuana.
Arens, is currently serving nearly six years in prison after being found guilty of impaired driving causing death after a crash claimed the life of a young City boy in 2010. He took the stand last week and said just before the 2013 incident in Sylvan Lake, he was in a good place.
“Things were going well at that point and there were more positive things going on in my life.”
But just days before his arrest he was fighting with his girlfriend at the time and he took, “A few days off and indulged. I was partying and I shouldn’t have been doing that.”
He testified that while he was staying with one of his employees in Sylvan Lake he began to do a large amount of drugs and was drinking in excess as well. Arens testified that on a “normal” day he would do three to four grams of crack cocaine.
“At the time I was feeling a little bit suicidal and I was getting whatever I could get and as much of it as I could get. I went three to four days without sleep.”
On Dec. 21st, 2013, Arens said he does not remember how he got to the Fas Gas station where he was found in the driver’s seat just before his arrest. He testified that his employee and his employee’s girlfriend left him in the truck to have a nap while they went to pick up a child.
“They didn’t want me around (when they picked the child up) because I was too messed up.”
Arens said that although there was a large number of drugs found in the truck he was in, he was not trafficking the drugs – some of the drugs were his and some were his employees.
“I wasn’t planning on bumping into law enforcement – I thought I would have had it all smoked by then,” he said.
Crown Prosecutor Ed Ring told Judge John Holmes that a six to nine month prison sentence would be appropriate for the convictions. He also suggested Arens serve a three-year driving prohibition, while Arens’ lawyer Donna Derie-Gillespie said Arens should be sentenced to four to six months in prison.
Holmes is expected to deliver his sentence on May 12th.
efawcett@reddeerexpress.com
