A man has been sentenced to four years’ imprisonment for robbing Yellowknife’s Bruno’s Pizza and Circle K convenience store in February 2024.
Zander Sydney-Firth, 24, was convicted of two robbery charges and sentenced in NWT Supreme Court last month.
Justice Annie Piché accepted the Crown and defence’s joint suggestion that Sydney-Firth be sentenced to two four-year sentences for the charges, to be served at the same time.
With credit for time served in pre-sentencing custody, Sydney-Firth had one year and 79 days of his sentence left to serve on the day he was sentenced.
Once released from jail, Sydney-Firth will be on probation for two years with conditions including that he not go to Bruno’s Pizza or Circle K in Yellowknife. He will also be prohibited from possessing firearms for life.
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In a Wednesday news release, RCMP stated Sydney-Firth’s sentence “represents an appropriate judgement in these serious matters.”
The Crown dropped additional charges against Sydney-Firth for allegedly robbing the Yellowknife Liquor Store of bottles of alcohol and threatening the clerk at Circle K.
According to an agreed statement of facts filed with the court, around 3am on February 13, 2024, Sydney-Firth entered the Circle K convenience store and walked around the counter behind the cash register.
Sydney-Firth then brandished a knife at the clerk and told the clerk to open the cash register or he would kill him. After the clerk opened the register, Sydney-Firth stole $70 in cash and fled on foot.
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RCMP investigating the robbery followed footprints in the snow from Circle K to a home in Lanky Court. Later that afternoon, officers saw a man leaving the home who identified himself as Tyler Carmichael, which police said was an alias for Sydney-Firth.
Early the following morning, Sydney-Firth walked behind the cash register at Bruno’s Pizza and threatened the clerk with a knife. The clerk and another employee tried to fight him off by throwing random objects at him as he tried to open the locked register. Sydney-Firth eventually gave up on the register, stole a carton of cigarettes and left.
Both robberies were captured in security camera footage.
The officers investigating the Circle K robbery recognized Sydney-Firth in footage from the Bruno’s robbery and police issued a public appeal for his whereabouts.
RCMP said they then received a tip that Sydney-Firth was at the Sunridge Place Apartments. Officers arrested him “without issue” and he has since remained in custody.
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