Too much gunplay, judge says
A Dartmouth judge is doing his part to crack down on gun-related crime, handing a 6½-year prison sentence to a man who climbed into a taxi with a sawed-off shotgun under his coat.
"You cannot open the newspaper without reading about the gunplay going on on the streets of our city," Judge Frank Hoskins said in provincial court.
"The general public is in need of protection.
"Therefore, the message must be sent to all those like-minded individuals that the possession of firearms in circumstances as we have here calls for significant periods in jail."
Hoskins made the remarks Thursday during a sentencing hearing for Daniel Redmond Marsman, 28, of Halifax.
Marsman has been in custody since Sept. 7, 2009, when a Dartmouth cab driver wrestled a sawed-off shotgun away from him and beat him into submission on the side of the road in Lawrencetown.
"You picked the wrong cabbie," Nevin Slawter said as he overpowered Marsman.
The gun wasn’t loaded, but police found two unspent shells in the back seat of the cab and one on the ground.
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