(everythingGP file photo)

By Troy Gillard

ended near sylvan lake

Mother charged in 2019 Amber Alert incident sentenced

Dec 29, 2020 | 9:42 AM

One of the two people charged after an abduction of three kids from a Fox Creek home prompted an amber alert has been given a suspended sentence and two years’ probation.

Charmaine Annette Darnel was given the sentence on a charge of housebreaking with intent to commit an indictable on December 14 in Grande Prairie court. That was one of four charges she pleaded guilty to in a Fox Creek court.

Counts of assault and threats to cause bodily harm were conditionally stayed, while another of abducting a person under the age of 16 was withdrawn. A conditional stay is a charge where the evidence would lead to a conviction, but is not entered because the law bars multiple convictions.

An email from the Crown prosecutor’s office says the stay was put in place because the indictable offences in the first charge were assault and uttering threats, meaning she could not be sentenced on those. Darnel had been facing three charges of abducting a person under age 16, but two were withdrawn after her original guilty plea.

Darnel and D’artangan Dirk Pool were arrested after three kids were taken from a Fox Creek home around 1:30 a.m. June 1, 2019.

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The children and their mother were later found in a vehicle near Sylvan Lake. The kids were not hurt.

Pool has a court appearance set for January 11 in Grande Prairie Court of Queen’s Bench. He is facing the same six charges that had been laid against Darnel, plus unlawful confinement and disguise with intent.

(With file from Curtis Galbraith – everythingGP)