Sagmoen found guilty of pointing gun toward sex worker but released for time already served

A B.C. Supreme Court judge has found Curtis Sagmoen guilty of wearing a mask with intent to commit an indictable offence and for use of a firearm in an indictable offence during an incident with a sex worker in August 2017.

Friday morning, Justice Alison Beames told a Vernon court room that she is satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that Sagmoen is the customer who texted the sex trade worker, whose name is protected by a publication ban, to meet him at a location south of Salmon Arm, B.C.

"The whole text exchange leads to no other reasonable conclusion that there was a planned ambush of [the woman]," said Beames.

The woman, who was the Crown's main witness during the trial, earlier told the court that she was instructed by the customer to drive down a rural lane to reach an address for a "two-to-three hour play date."

She told the court about how she barely got away. The woman said the man pointed a firearm through the driver's side window of her car, but she brushed it away and tried to drive off.

She said she then crashed the car and got stuck, so she fled down the road on foot and eventually spent the night in a flower bed. 

Police discovered the front driver-side tire of her car shot out with a .410 gauge shotgun slug inside the tire.

Investigators also found shotgun shells during a search of Sagmoen's truck and two spent shell casings in a search of his parent's property. However, during the trial, the court heard they did not locate the shotgun. 

Beames found Sagmoen not guilty of intentionally discharging a firearm in a reckless manner. He was also acquitted of the charge that he knowingly threatened to cause death or bodily harm. 

The judge said the witness did not provide evidence that the assailant spoke to her, so the Crown admitted there was no evidence to support this charge.

Sagmoen was also found guilty for the possession of methamphetamine. Earlier in the trial, defence lawyer Lisa Jean Helps admitted there was evidence of the meth possession and she wouldn't be challenging that charge.

Sagmoen's sentencing

Justice Beames described Sagmoen's offences as "very serious. They are unprovoked, premeditated, almost inexplicable — the ambush of a sex trade worker."

She sentenced Sagmoen to two years less a day in jail, because sentences below two years allow for probation. 

Sagmoen will have a 36-month probation period with conditions, including no contact with the victim or sex workers, enrolment in an anger management program, no use of internet for escort sites, limited cellphone use, a ban from living where firearms or illegal drugs are present, a ban on owning firearms and and the relinquishment of firearms he owns to the RCMP.

Beames said the Crown made the point that the convictions don't allow for a sentence much higher than two-and-a-half years, and because Sagmoen has already been in custody for two years and two months without a sentence, his time served is credited as three years and three months.

This means Sagmoen has finished serving time for this case. He has another case coming to court in February 2020 for an alleged assault on another sex worker.