Bank robber gets 8 years (a crime he committed while out on bail for a previous bank robbe

Bank robber gets 8 years (a crime he committed while out on bail for a previous bank robbery)
Date: Nov 2, 2005 8:24 AM
PUBLICATION: The Windsor Star
DATE: 2005.11.02
EDITION: Final
SECTION: News
PAGE: A3
BYLINE: Dalson Chen
SOURCE: Windsor Star
WORD COUNT: 348
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Bank robber gets 8 years

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A drug addict with a self-described "death wish" was sentenced on
Tuesday to seven years in prison for robbing a South Windsor bank
earlier this year -- a crime he committed while out on bail for a
previous bank robbery.

"I want to apologize to the community of Windsor that trusted me,"
Stanley Lucier, 42, said in a tearful address to Justice Micheline
Rawlins. "I violated that trust.... I let them down."

Lucier pleaded guilty to using an imitation handgun to rob the TD Canada
Trust branch at 3281 Dougall Ave. the morning of April 30, 2005.

According to assistant Crown attorney Mitch Hoffman, Lucier intimidated
employees into handing him $1,000 in cash, then fled the scene in a
stolen pickup truck.

Soon afterward, Windsor police spotted Lucier inside his getaway vehicle
parked in a residential neighbourhood on Bruce Avenue.

When police converged on him, Lucier tried to escape by suddenly
accelerating, nearly running down an officer and causing a newspaper boy
to scramble for safety.

FIRED SHOT

Another officer fired a shot at the fleeing vehicle.

Lucier lost control and crashed into a parked truck before coming to a
halt. He was immediately apprehended by police.

Hoffman pointed out Lucier's "significant criminal record," including
13
convictions for robberies in Windsor and Vancouver -- six of those
involving banks.

At the time of the TD Canada Trust heist, Lucier was already facing
charges for the robbery of a local Scotiabank branch in October 2004.

As part of his plea, Lucier took responsibility for that crime. Hoffman
acknowledged this as a mitigating factor, admitting that the Crown would
have had difficulty gaining a conviction in that case because of a lack
of positive identification.

Defence lawyer Patrick Ducharme said his client was driven to commit
robberies because of his drug problems.

"He'll use anything. He'll use pills and marijuana, things of that
nature. But his main addiction is cocaine," Ducharme said. "This is a
powerful addiction, with a powerful pull on him. He still needs a great
deal of therapy."

Ducharme said in recent years, Lucier -- who has a wife and two children
-- appeared to "straighten himself around," enrolling in rehabilitation
at Brentwood and volunteering for speaking engagements at local high
schools to warn of the dangers of drugs.

Following suggestions from the Crown, Rawlins sentenced Lucier to eight
years' imprisonment, less double credit for the six months he'd already
spent in custody.