BY KEITH LACEY
A Sudbury man who has spent the majority of his adult life behind bars will be released from jail within days.
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A judge has warned him itÂ?s time to straighten out his life or face the rest of his life in an institution.
Â?ItÂ?s up to you, you can make this work or you will be behind bars for a very, very long time,Â? Ontario Superior Court Justice Patricia Hennessy told Kenny MacDonald Monday after declaring him a long-term offender.
ItÂ?s going to take some time for MacDonald to adopt to a lifestyle where he must obey the laws and stay away from drugs and alcohol, but he will have to do it or he will breach the 10-year long-term supervision order she issued against him, said Hennessy.
Â?ItÂ?s up to you,Â? said Hennessy looking directly at MacDonald.
MacDonald has been in jail since August 2001 after being arrested for a vicious assault against a Sudbury man in a hotel washroom.
MacDonald was released on bail, but got into trouble within days and has been behind bars for almost 18 months, including the last 14 months on the charge of assault causing bodily harm.
Hennessy found MacDonald guilty almost one year ago to the day, Feb. 19, 2002, following a trial.
SudburyÂ?s Crown attorneyÂ?s office asked MacDonald undergo a 60-day assessment as part of the process to determine if the Crown would go forward with a dangerous offender application against MacDonald.
After several months of delays, caused in large part by a Toronto doctor who wouldnÂ?t divulge a final psychiatric report and other critical medical information, the Crown was scheduled to begin the dangerous offender application two weeks ago.
The long-term offender designation means police and the courts will have enormous powers to ensure MacDonald abides by numerous restrictions on his freedom.
A successful dangerous offender application could have meant MacDonald spend an indefinite period of time behind bars.
Assistant Crown attorney Fran Howe and defence counsel Andrew Buttazzoni both told Hennessy the evidence is clear there is sufficient medical and criminal evidence to support the long-term offender supervision order against MacDonald.
Hennessy commented the additional 30 days in jail will mean the full length of MacDonaldÂ?s sentence for the washroom assault is close to 29 months, which is in the range for this offence for a man with such a serious and uninterrupted criminal record.
Noting MacDonald has almost two dozen convictions for violence, Hennessy banned him for life from owning or possessing any prohibited weapon and ordered him to provide a DNA sample for a national crime data bank.
She didnÂ?t order, but Â?strongly recommendedÂ? more than a dozen other restrictions against MacDonald.
They included he find a job or return to school, abstain absolutely from using alcohol or illicit drugs; be subject to random drug testing; adhere to a nightly curfew during the first six months of his release; and not communicate or associate with anyone with a known drug record.
Â?Any breachÂ?and you are guilty of an indictable offenceÂ? punishable by up to 10 years in prison,Â? said Hennessy.
Hennessy agreed with reports by medical professionals that MacDonald suffers from an Â?anti-social disorderÂ? and he remains a strong risk to re-offend.
MacDonald is now 35 and has spent most of the past 20 years incarcerated. ItÂ?s time for him to leave Sudbury and his circle of friends behind, said Buttazzoni.
MacDonald has a job waiting for him in Toronto, where his sister lives, and thatÂ?s where he will head following his release, said Buttazzoni.
Â?Sudbury is not a good place for Kenny to be,Â? he said. Â?The only people he knows are those with access to alcohol and narcoticsÂ?He doesnÂ?t want to be around that.Â?
The national parole board has to approve Â?sMacDonald move to Toronto, but his lawyer does not expect that to be a problem.
