Crown wants 11 years for man who used teens to run drugs from Winnipeg home that was firebombed in 2016

A man who was badly burned in a Molotov cocktail attack was using vulnerable teens to sell drugs out of his Young Street home, a Winnipeg court heard Tuesday.

Justin Kirstein was found guilty last October of seven drug and firearm offences for operating a mid-level cocaine trafficking operation in his home, which police discovered after a firebomb sailed into his bedroom on July 16, 2016.

During Wednesday's sentencing hearing, provincial Crown prosecutor Neil Steen and federal Crown prosecutor Hugh Crawley argued Kirstein deserves an exemplary sentence of 11 years in custody, less time served, because he was using teens to conduct street-level trafficking for him.

The teens were vulnerable youth who were involved with Child and Family Services, Crawley said, who armed themselves with bear spray or machetes while selling cocaine out of the Young Street residence, the court heard. One of the teens was also diagnosed with ADHD and fetal alcohol syndrome, he said.

"The community does not tolerate someone who lured in teens with a place to use drugs, play video games, and traffic cocaine," Crawley told the court.

"You just can't be doing what Mr. Kirstein was doing."

While investigating the 2016 firebombing of Kirstein's home, police found 158 grams of cocaine, about $16,000 in a singed briefcase, an assault rifle, a machete and a sawed-off shotgun.

At the time of the fire, Kirstein demanded that the teens go back into the burning building to save his money, Crawley said.

Court also heard on Wednesday that Kirstein was caught selling drugs by an undercover cop while out on bail in 2018, before he was found guilty of trafficking at his trial in October. He was convicted of three counts of trafficking in connection with that in April of this year, the court heard.

Plagued by mental health issues: dealer

Before the hearing was over, Kirstein addressed Court of Queen's Bench Justice Robert Dewar, telling him he has mental health issues as a result of the fire that are so severe he can't even enjoy watching movies anymore, because he's afraid something will trigger him.

Rolling up his sleeve to show the burns on his forearm, Kirstein said he "looks like Freddy Krueger," the infamous horror movie villain, as a result of his injuries.

Earlier, Crawley told the court that while the Crown acknowledges Kirstein was seriously hurt, he knew the risks associated with running a drug trafficking operation.  

During the course of his nine-day trial in 2018, court heard that as Kirstein slept on July 16, 2016, a brick sailed through his bedroom window, followed by a Molotov cocktail.

He woke up covered in flames.

Two males originally charged with arson in connection with the firebombing were acquitted at trial in early 2018. They can no longer be identified under a publication ban.

At that trial, Kirstein told court he was a former member of the B-Side street gang. He believed the firebombing was a form of retaliation from members of the Mad Cowz gang, because the two-storey home he moved into on Young Street was in their territory.

Kirstein, who fired his lawyer a week before his October trial and represented himself, was represented at Wednesday's sentencing hearing by defence lawyer Brett Gladstone. Gladstone asked for seven-and-a-half years in custody for his client, arguing Kirstein is an intelligent person who has prospects for rehabilitation if he applies himself.

Dewar is scheduled to give his sentencing decision on June 27.