There’s more to life than bouncing in and out of jail.

That’s what Judge Donald Luther told a 30-year old Whitehorse man who pled guilty Friday morning in an attempted carjacking case.

In November 2015, Jason Gallant approached a car at a stop light in Surrey, B.C.

He tried first to get in a rear door, then the front. During the attempt, his T-shirt was pulled over his face, and he used his hand to imitate a gun.

“Honestly, it was a spur-of-the moment decision,” Gallant told Judge Luther.

He said he had a place to live at the time, and he had money, so it wasn’t about that.

When he was picked up by RCMP that night, he told them he had been drinking, though said he wasn’t drunk.

“To be honest, I don’t know what I was thinking,” he said.

Dressed in a button-down shirt and tie, Gallant spoke in court about the robbery attempt, and about his upbringing and Metis culture.

Gallant was born in Calgary and moved to Whitehorse when he was 12 years old. His mother, sober for the last seven years now, was an alcoholic when Gallant was growing up.

He lived for four years with his father, in Victoria, B.C., where he dropped out of high school to live with a girlfriend. In the years after his father died in 2003, Gallant worked jobs as a hotel desk clerk and in the mining industry.

In 2013, Gallant was in the vehicle during a workplace car accident that killed some of his colleagues.

Gallant’s lawyer, Norah Mooney, said the event left Gallant with psychological trauma, and alcoholism took over.

Mooney said Gallant has been involved in programming in recent months to overcome his alcoholism.

She asked for a suspended sentence for her client, arguing a strong probation would be deterrent enough.

She said Gallant had strong motivation to remain sober, as he and his sister are currently caring for their mother, who is dying of lung cancer.

“I’m in no way downplaying the seriousness of these charges,” said Mooney, as she likened her client’s finger-gun robbery attempt to the kind of “stupid act” one might see in a comic.

“This is a gentleman who is an alcoholic and who is making very strong attempts to make sobriety a permanent way of life,” she said.

“People dealing with alcoholism, they struggle and they slip .... I believe that this young man is motivated,” she said.

Judge Luther agreed he had to weigh Gallant’s upbringing in his decision.

He also considered multiple letters of support. (Crown Keith Parkkari pointed out that one of these letters was from a program Gallant had been involved with before the carjacking attempt.)

The judge said he also had to weigh the positive words of a neighbour who appeared on Gallant’s behalf.

Still, he said Gallant would be making amends for the robbery attempt, as well as for charges of failure to comply with conditions of recognizance, including breaking curfew and possession of a weapon, both while attending recovery facilities in B.C.

“I can only imagine the stark horror of the victims involved,” said Judge Luther of the two female passengers in the attempted carjacking.

“It would be absolutely terrifying to them.”

“It is my opinion, and it is a very firm opinion, that to impose a non-conditional sentence in this case would clearly be an unfit sentence.”

Judge Luther decided on a 90-day sentence, to be served intermittently, at Whitehorse Correctional Centre on weekends.

Gallant will also be on probation for three years, the first six months of which, he must stick to a curfew and not leave the house between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m.

He must keep the peace and be of good behaviour.

Gallant also has three months to write a 400-word letter of apology to the two female victims in the carjacking attempt.

As well, he must complete 150 hours of community service in the next 15 months, and refrain from drinking.

Luther said that, as long as Gallant complies, this sentence will allow the court to keep control over him, while still allowing him to care for his mother.

“If you don’t, you won’t be available to help your mother out. It’s as simple as that,” Luther said.