B.C. driver was too drunk to explain carrying loaded gun

A Burnaby man was arrested and given a sentence of three-and-a-half years after he was caught drunk behind the wheel. He was carrying a semiautomatic pistol with a silencer that was loaded at the time.

29-year-old Kurtis Dieter Sandy Schmidt was unable to explain his reasons for having the loaded weapon with additional ammunition or for wearing his bullet-proof vest. According to court documents, he was taken into custody on the morning of June 28, 2017.

Schmidt explained that at the time of the incident he was on a multiple day drinking spree.

According to Burnaby Now, Schmidt was reported after he was seen tailgating someone late at night. Court documents indicate that he was later arrested while at his parents house.

Police were waiting at the home when Schmidt arrived. He then proceeded to run away from the officers into the woods and was caught shortly after.

Schmidt said that he was not sure why he had the firearm and body armour but suggested he may have bought them earlier that day.

When he was a witness at the trial of Mark Anthony Arrieta in 2009 (a gang member convicted of murder) Schmidt apparently gave a similar type of story. He said he was also drunk at that time and passed out when the crime took place though records indicated that his phone was being used during the same time period.

Judge Paul Meyers from the B.C. Provincial Court did not find Schmidt’s explanation convincing.

During the sentencing last month, Meyers said, “He was driving drunk in a busy city at midnight,” he added, “The gun was openly resting on the seat.  The gun was cocked, along with a loaded magazine in it and he had a silencer locked in place.  The gun had never been registered in Canada.  The gun had no serial number on it … He was under four separate orders prohibiting him from possessing firearms.”

“He was wearing a bullet-proof vest at midnight.  His ‘explanations’–or at least his expressed bewilderment as to how, when, or why he had possession of the gun, the magazines, the silencer and the bullet-proof vest–are, in my mind, not satisfactory explanations at all.”

Meyers explained that from 2009-2012, Schmidt had multiple convictions and then none after that until this incident.

He explained that Schmidt had been doing well while he was on bail—he had a job, a steady relationship and was not drinking.

Meyers noted, “I have a big question mark there because he does not seem to acknowledge, in my view, in a forthright way what in the world he was doing that night with all of those dangerous things.”

Schmidt pleaded guilty to the charges and received a lifetime firearms ban along with his sentence.