Jury finds Corey Paddy guilty of firearms trafficking after deliberating less than four hours

It took a jury in Saskatoon less than four hours to find Corey Paddy guilty of trafficking firearms.

The 25-year-old woman went on trial April 17 at Court of King's Bench in Saskatoon before Justice Richard Elson and a jury of six men and six women. Prosecutor Andrew Clements and defence lawyer Kimbal MacMillan made their closing arguments on April 24, followed by Justice Elson's instructions to the jury.

The jurors returned briefly with a question and then, around 7:30 p.m. CST, they came back with their verdict.

"She's been convicted by the jury of having these firearms for the purpose of trafficking them," Clements said in an interview, by way of summing up the six charges.

Given how there is a mandatory minimum sentence of five years for a second firearms conviction, when possessing a prohibited weapon for the purpose of trafficking, Clements agreed that it appears she will get more years for her sentence than the jury spent hours deliberating.

In court, MacMillan said he expects to challenge that mandatory minimum. At the same time. Clements indicated that he'll be arguing for a sentence longer than five years.

"She does have, in my view, a substantial record. There are prior firearm-related offences, and some serious offences on it that resulted in custodial sentences," he said.

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Paddy was charged in April 2020 after police spotted her on surveillance footage outside a storage unit on Wanuskewin Road in Saskatoon's north end. She was helping Brett Karol, her boyfriend, move items from a truck and u-haul trailer into the unit. At the time, police were only investigating Karol.

Karol went on to plead guilty to a raft of firearms charges and was sentenced to five years. 

Over the course of five days of testimony and evidence, jurors heard conflicting views of what was happening on the surveillance footage, and were offered different ways of interpreting recorded conversations between Paddy and Karol when he was in jail.

The case returns to court May 3 to set a date for sentencing submissions.

Justice Elson ordered a pre-sentence report for Paddy, instructing specific attention be paid to her background as an aboriginal offender.