St Lawrence College Canadian Criminal Law Case Brief Analysis Essay

Assignment: Please find Case Law Only in canada.

You work as a law clerk for a criminal defence firm in Kingston. Your firm has been retained by
Keri Jones, an 18 year old St. Lawrence College student. Keri has been charged with theft under
$5000.00 under s. 334(b) of the Criminal Code. Theft is set out in the Criminal Code in s. 322.
The facts of the event and arrest are set out below.
The lawyer on the file has assigned you the task of reviewing case law relating to this charge.
You are asked to find two (2) relevant cases and prepare a case brief for each one. One case
should support our clientàsituation. The other case should support the Crownàposition so that
the firm can be better prepared in its defence of Keri.
Your brief should include an analysis for each of the two cases and how they relate to Keriàfact
scenario. For example, set out how are the cases similar to this one? How are they different?
How does one help our defence and how/why does the other case benefit the Crownàposition?
Your research and analysis should focus on the elements of the offence, that being the Actus
Reus and Mens Rea.

WHAT HAPPENED:

On March 5, 2023, at around 7PM, two friends, Keri Jones and Phil Jackson, went shopping at
the Cataraqui Centre. They were shopping to buy a birthday gift for their friend, Andrea. They
decided to pool their money together and buy a gift that was under $50.They went into Musik
Box because it was having a New Yearàblowout sale. It was difficult for them to decide what to
buy, so Keri went to look at the music players and Phil went to look at the cell phone cases. Keri
went over to the iPod display counter where there were about 10 other people testing the music
players. She picked up a re-furbished pink iPod, which was priced at $50.00. She clipped it to
her belt to test the player and continued to walk around the store with it attached to her belt. She
wanted to make sure no one else bought the last pink one in case they decided to use their entire
$50 budget to buy the player.
After twenty minutes of looking around the store, they agreed to buy a cell phone case for
Andrea since it was a bit cheaper. They waited in line for more than fifteen minutes because the
place was packed and the lineup was huge. They finally paid for the cell phone case and turned
to leave the store. As they were leaving, a security guard who identified herself as Fiona Lester
stopped them. Keri panicked, struggled and then tried to get away, but the security guard held
onto her arms firmly and made sure that they both followed her to the security office. Keri claims
she was so scared when it happened that she could hardly talk. Her first reaction was to try to get
away because she was going to get into trouble and did not mean to do anything wrong.
Once at the office, Fiona Lester asked Keri to empty her pockets and remove her belt. She placed
her wallet, the belt and the iPod onto the desk. Keri tried to explain how she had not meant to
take the iPod but had just forgotten it was attached to her belt. Keri claims she was feeling tired
and hungry at the time they were checking out.
Fiona said she did not believe Keri and called the police and the storeowner, Brian Perez. When
Constable Tran (the police officer) arrived at the security office, Fiona Lester explained what she
had observed. Keri explained that she had simply forgotten to remove the iPod from her belt.
Keri started to cry and apologized to Brian Perez. Phil tried to help Keri by saying that he did not
think she meant to take the player but was told he should leave. Constable Tran asked Keri a
couple of questions and put the music player into a plastic bag and attached a tag to it. Keri was
co-operative and answered the questions quickly. He charged her with theft of goods of a value
not exceeding five thousand dollars, under s. 334(b), her actions being contrary to section 322(1)
of the Criminal Code of Canada.