Lyle Malcolm, who was high on meth, drunk and enraged — and carrying a sawed-off shotgun — forced his way into a home, along with two other men, in search of the woman who had assaulted his ex-girlfriend one day earlier.
She was there that night, July 16, 2022, but they didn’t find her in the home on Ebb and Flow First Nation, 230 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg.
He pointed his weapon at a man in the home, while an accomplice struck the man in the face with a firearm; both demanded to know where she was.
As they went out the door, Malcolm and one of his accomplices said, “Don’t call the cops or we will come back,” wrote Dauphin provincial court Judge Geoffrey Bayly in a recent sentencing decision.
The home invasion was the first crime of a days-long spree that ended when Malcolm and two others staged a lengthy violent standoff at a home on the reserve that RCMP responded to.
Bayley sentenced Malcolm to seven years in prison for his crimes, at an Oct. 31 hearing. He’ll serve three years and seven months, considering the time he has been behind bars since his arrest on July 27, 2022.
Malcolm, who is in his early 40s, had pleaded guilty to break-and-enter with intent, possessing a gun contrary to a prohibition order, two counts of driving while prohibited, obstruction or resisting arrest and fleeing police in a vehicle in court in Dauphin in August.
A few days after the home invasion, RCMP spotted a stolen truck parked behind another home, and as they drove up, Malcolm jumped in the truck and peeled off.
Mounties tried to pull over the vehicle, but Malcolm drove through a field and escaped into the bush.
On July 27, Mounties arrived at Ebb and Flow to search for Malcolm and found him standing with Tyson Racette and Manuel Houle — both of whom have been sentenced for their roles in the standoff that ensued.
The trio ran into a house and “embarked on a prolonged multi-hour standoff with police refusing to surrender, causing significant property damage and creating a very volatile situation for the police,” wrote Bayly.
Houle was apparently armed with a rifle, said Bayly.
After many hours, the standoff began to unravel, the judge said.
Mounties heard a loud explosion and observed smoke and flames coming from the house. Houle surrendered. Another explosion took place 10 minutes later, with more flames, then Racette gave himself up.
After 10 more minutes, as the smoke billowed, Malcolm came out to be handcuffed, Bayly said.
Firefighters discovered the explosions were caused by aerosol cans that had been placed inside a dryer, which was then turned on.
The three men were treated for smoke inhalation before they were charged.
Malcolm has “an astounding 44 prior criminal convictions” from 2008 to 2022, and little insight into his offending, said Bayly, noting he had initially lied to probation officers during preparation of a pre-sentencing report. He had claimed he had been sober from meth and booze for two years at the time of his crimes.
“Both (a pre-sentence report and supplementary report) concluded that the offender was a high risk to reoffend. There were several factors that gave rise to this conclusion, including the opinion that he held pro-criminal attitudes, has many negative peer associations and lower levels of both education and work history,” said Bayly.
“He has explicitly expressed a sustained lack of interest in participating in any institutional programming.”
Bayly noted Malcolm had a difficult childhood marred by his parents’ excessive drinking and involvement with child welfare. He has little education because his parents didn’t encourage him to attend school. He began drinking at 16.
Crown prosecutor Samuel Levkov sought an eight-year federal sentence, while defence lawyer Mike Cook asked for two years less a day to be served in provincial jail.
“The sentence that I have imposed… is designed primarily to denounce the offender’s criminal conduct, to separate the offender from the community in the hope of providing reparation for the harms that he has created,” said Bayly.
“But it is also an attempt to promote the offender’s rehabilitation by providing him with the time and opportunity to confront his past traumas and to make better choices.”
erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca
Erik Pindera
Reporter
Erik Pindera is a reporter for the Free Press, mostly focusing on crime and justice. The born-and-bred Winnipegger attended Red River College Polytechnic, wrote for the community newspaper in Kenora, Ont. and reported on television and radio in Winnipeg before joining the Free Press in 2020. Read more about Erik.
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