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A Toronto man who pleaded guilty last year to shooting a Barrie man during a failed robbery in June 2022 has been sentenced to seven years behind bars.
Michael Williams, who was 18 at the time of the shooting, was captured on surveillance cameras, emerging from the passenger side of a stolen SUV, with a gun in hand, along Country Lane in Barrie’s south end.
The court heard Williams approached a white Mercedes on a driveway around 6 p.m. on June 7, 2022. Justice Cecile Applegate called the attack “planned and targeted.”
Williams pleaded guilty to the gun and robbery charges in early 2024.
During his sentencing hearing weeks ago, Williams expressed remorse for shooting Barrie man Max Pritchett. Williams’ lawyer Nadia Chaabane told CTV News police were in the area at the time conducting surveillance on Pritchett, who had previously been acquitted of attempted murder for a downtown Barrie shooting in 2017.
“There was some reason to believe that there was other unrelated cases with respect to that individual,” said Chaabane.
The court had been shown video of Pritchett in the Mercedes trying to get away from Williams, who was seen shooting at the driver.
Pritchett was taken to hospital with a bullet wound in his shoulder.
Williams, who has been in custody since his arrest that day, was credited with four years in of pre-sentence custody, along with extra credit for what the judge called “shocking” conditions while in three different overcrowded, understaffed jails, including Central North Correctional Centre in Penetanguishene.
Williams told the court he was often ‘triple bunked’ in jail and under lockdown conditions that resulted in an inability to shower and eat.
The court heard Williams had a rough upbringing and was witness to violence and drug use growing up in Toronto’s Regent Park neighbourhood. The defence told the court Williams had been drawn into a life of crime and was subject to ‘over policing.’
In Thursday’s sentencing, Justice Applegate told Williams she hoped he meant what he said during his sentencing hearing when he assured the court he had “turned a corner” and would continue to do so going forward.
Williams’ lawyer hugged him before he was led away in handcuffs to serve another 30 months in jail.
Upon his release from custody, as part of his sentencing conditions, Williams is also banned from possessing weapons for life.
