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THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES\/John Woods<\/p>\n
In June, he was sentenced to nine years in prison, minus time served, based on a joint recommendation from the Crown and defence as part of a plea bargain.<\/p>\n
At his sentencing hearing, Crown prosecutor Amy Wood told provincial court Judge Rob Finlayson that Ranger\u2019s business partnership with another Winnipeg man \u201cwas not going well and essentially falling apart.\u201d<\/p>\n
The nature of the business was not made clear in court, but it involved supplying corner stores with nicotine vape products.<\/p>\n
Ranger\u2019s lawyer, Christopher Gamby, said the business went \u201crelatively well\u201d before a dispute led the others involved to take some product from Ranger and have him removed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese were convenience stores\u2026 they were selling grey-market vapes and things of that nature. This is an area where it\u2019s not strictly criminal, what they were up to,\u201d Gamby told court. \u201cMr. Ranger was involved in this with some of these folk.\u201d<\/p>\n
The driver worked for Ranger\u2019s business partner and was out doing deliveries on the evening of Oct. 11, 2024, when Ranger and others accosted him at the rear of a tattoo shop on Nairn Avenue and forced him into a trailer, said Wood.<\/p>\n
The men took his cellphone and threatened to shoot him and kill his family. They forced him into the trailer and drove to a storage facility on Notre Dame Avenue, where their movements were caught on video surveillance, the prosecutor said. He was forced to provide codes to one of the lockers.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was taken at what (the victim) believed to be gunpoint, however, no firearm was ever recovered and there was nothing to be able to confirm what it was that the individuals had,\u201d said Wood.<\/p>\n
The victim remained locked in the trailer as the men used the storage code to take \u201capproximately $25,000 worth of vape products from the locker\u201d that Ranger felt belonged to him, the prosecutor said.<\/p>\n
The men left \u2014 with the driver still in the trailer \u2014 and drove to various places across the city before dropping the driver off and returning his phone, said Wood.<\/p>\n
The driver spoke to police initially, then took time to consider making further comments to investigators, Wood said.<\/p>\n
The driver, a permanent resident of Canada who had a permit to work for Ranger\u2019s ex-business partner, declined to make a formal victim impact statement, said Wood.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe does very much remain fearful,\u201d said the prosecutor. \u201cHe left Manitoba as a result of this and very much does not wish to return.\u201d<\/p>\n
By December 2024, Wood said, Winnipeg police had a warrant for Ranger\u2019s arrest and had set up video surveillance at a Sherbrook Street address.<\/p>\n
Just after 10:30 p.m. on Dec. 20 that year, investigators spotted him driving a Jeep. Officers in the service\u2019s helicopter followed him to the lane behind a Notre Dame Avenue convenience store, where he tossed a gun into a garbage bin.<\/p>\n
Ranger was arrested minutes later. A loaded pistol that had been reported stolen to Ottawa police was recovered, and 50 cartons of untaxed cigarettes were in the Jeep. He remained in jail without bail prior to the court proceedings.<\/p>\n
Gamby said his client was initially arrested in November 2024, as the business relationship was dissolving. Ranger had leased a building that housed a convenience store and an apartment. He told the store staff that he wanted them out, the lawyer said.<\/p>\n
His ex-business partner called police and said Ranger and others were at the store armed with guns, threatening to shoot it up, said the lawyer. <\/p>\n
Ranger, who was arrested, found his apartment had been ransacked after he was let out of custody days later.<\/p>\n
The building later burned to the ground and people began following Ranger around the city, according to the lawyer. Gamby said Ranger started to carry a gun. At the time, he was subject to five court orders barring him from possessing weapons.<\/p>\n
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His lengthy record includes several convictions for violence. His lawyer said he was trying to turn his life around before he got involved in the shady business partnership.<\/p>\n
He had a traumatic upbringing that included time as a runaway after he was taken into child and family services care, but has since got sober in jail, Gamby said.<\/p>\n
The judge wished him luck in turning his life around.<\/p>\n
The other two accused, Tyson Shane Daniels, 34, and Terrence Joel McIvor, 35, who was arrested earlier this month, remain before the court.<\/p>\n
erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca<\/p>\n
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Erik Pindera Erik Pindera is a reporter for the Free Press, mostly focusing on crime and justice. The born-and-bred Winnipegger attended Red River College Polytechnic, wrote for the community newspaper in Kenora, Ont. and reported on television and radio in Winnipeg before joining the Free Press in 2020.\u00a0 Read more about Erik<\/a>.<\/p>\n Every piece of reporting Erik produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print \u2014 part of the Free Press\u2018s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press\u2019s history and mandate<\/a>, and learn how our newsroom operates<\/a>.<\/p>\n
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