A Winnipeg man whose arrest on gun trafficking charges and release on bail brought online ridicule to his parents after they tried and failed to stop police from conducting repeated curfew checks at their Tuxedo home has been sentenced to two years less a day house arrest.
Daniel Bell, 23, was originally charged with 16 weapons manufacturing and trafficking related offences, but pleaded guilty Wednesday to a single count of unauthorized possession of a restricted firearm in a case court heard was dramatically different than the one prosecutors alleged at the time of his June 2023 arrest.
“Following the bail, the complexion of he Crown’s case changed significantly,” prosecutor Adam Gingera told provincial court Judge Malcolm McDonald.
MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS FILES
Winnipeg police have been warning about the creation and sale of 3D printed weapons, also known as ghost guns.
Court heard Bell came to the attention of Winnipeg police after a Montreal-based police investigation into the production and trafficking of 3D printed firearms indicated Bell had purchased seven gun rails from an online supplier. Gun rails are used exclusively in the production of 3D-printed firearms.
City police executed a search warrant at Bell’s Greenway Crescent condo and seized a 3D printer, nearly a dozen firearms, including one 3D-printed Glock-style handgun that was locked in a safe, and assorted firearm components.
“What the Crown believed was that (Bell) had ordered seven rails, enough to manufacture seven Glock handguns, and that there was only one handgun in the apartment, begging the question: Where are the other six?” Gingera said. “The Crown saw this, fairly, as evidence the guns had been trafficked. It certainly appeared that Mr. Bell was amassing a small arsenal of firearms.”
Bell was released a week later on bail, which the Crown opposed, with conditions he abide by an absolute curfew and live with his parents at their Tuxedo home.
Bell and his parents were back in court two months later for a bail review, seeking an order that police not be allowed to continue conducting curfew checks. Court heard over the course of 53 days, police conducted 23 curfew checks, sometimes multiple times in one day and often late into the night and early morning.
Bell’s parents provided affidavits to court complaining the checks were “embarrassing” and “harassing” and that the frequent police presence was attracting the attention of neighbours.
Justice Herbert Rempel denied the family’s request, saying the curfew checks were a “minor inconvenience,” given the seriousness of the charges Bell was facing.
CBC Manitoba reported on the bail hearing, leading to an avalanche of ridicule directed at the family online, Gingera said.
“My understanding is that they suffered a great deal of embarrassment as a result of that news article and how widespread it became,” he said. “I don’t think it’s overstating it to say they experienced a very public shaming.”
Over time, it became clear the evidence against Bell wasn’t what it had appeared, Gingera said. For one thing, a close examination of Bell’s purchase receipts showed he bought just one gun rail, not seven, as suggested by Quebec police, leaving the Crown no evidence Bell had been trafficking firearms. Most significantly, an analysis of the seized firearms found that all but the Glock handgun — which was stored securely in a safe — were inoperable or antiques (which didn’t require a firearms licence).
While there was no question the Glock handgun found in Bell’s safe was made with a 3D printer, there was no direct evidence Bell was the person who made it or that it was made with his 3D printer, Gingera said.
According to a psychological report referenced in court, Bell lives with obsessive compulsive disorder and is a compulsive collector.
Defence lawyer Evan Roitenberg described Bell as a “creative, curious young man” who used the 3D printer to make jewelry.
Roitenberg said over the course of the one year Bell was on bail, police conducted 94 curfew checks “to see if Daniel slipped up.”
“I can appreciate the police may have thought this case was a lot more serious, but it smacks of, I daresay, the police being displeased Mr. Bell was being released on bail, and not the severity of the charges,” Roitenberg said.
McDonald said the evidence initially provided at the bail hearing would have justified a lengthy custodial sentence.
“But you don’t make decisions based on the evidence heard at a bail hearing,” he said.
McDonald ordered Bell observe an absolute curfew while under house arrest, with exceptions for work and school, and sentenced him to an additional three years supervised probation.
“Don’t collect this stuff ever again,” McDonald told Bell. “Your curiosity and creativity should be channeled in a different direction.”
dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca
Dean Pritchard
Courts reporter
Dean Pritchard is courts reporter for the Free Press. He has covered the justice system since 1999, working for the Brandon Sun and Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in 2019. Read more about Dean.
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