A man convicted of assaulting a woman, stealing a car, trespassing on a property at night, breaking and entering and carelessly using a firearm was sentenced to 12 months in jail on Monday.

Crown prosecutor John Phelps told Yukon territorial court he and defence lawyer David Christie spent hours working on an appropriate sentence submission for Timothy Dewhurst’s crimes. He called the circumstances of the case “difficult.”

Phelps conceded the 12-month sentence they put forward is on the low end of sentences available, given the crimes and the accused’s criminal record.

Dewhurst could have been looking at time in a federal penitentiary, meaning more than two years in custody, Phelps said.

“Hopefully (Dewhurst) will take advantage of that opportunity,” said Phelps.

Christie told the judge that the court had to balance the gravity of the offences against the gravity of the disability Dewhurst, a Teslin Tlingit Council citizen, was suffering from.

Both parties referred to the disability as “severe cognitive issues” but didn’t specify a precise diagnosis.

Christie also noted he was impressed that Dewhurst had the ability to reflect on his crime, given his disability. Dewhurst told him he wanted to change.

“There is hope, still,” said Christie.

Judge Michael Cozens accepted the Crown and defence’s joint submission.

He noted that while this was Dewhurst’s ninth break and enter, it was his first offence of violence, a “step up.”

Cozens quoted from a 2009 Yukon case involving a Pelly Crossing man with FASD.

Judge Heino Lilles, who was presiding over the case, noted that one of the sentencing principles set out in the Criminal Code called for proportionate measures to the “degree of responsibility of the offender.”

He concludes that FASD diminished that level of moral culpability and called for a diminished sanction.

That case applied to Dewhurst, Cozens ruled.

There was also a number of Gladue factors in this case he said. He was referring to reports that look at the backgrounds of First Nation offenders and the influence of residential schools and cycles of abuse on their lives.

Gladue factors usually refer to abuses the offenders suffered while growing up.

An agreed statement of fact was filed to the court.

On Nov. 23, 2014, Dewhurst stole a car its owner had left running while running inside Watson Lake’s elementary school.

Police located him eight kilometres outside the town after he had run the vehicle into a ditch.

The man was visibly intoxicated, and police recovered his fingerprints on the vehicle’s steering wheel.

On May 11, 2015, a Porter Creek man caught three men on his property shortly before midnight.

Two were able to flee, but the man managed to hold Dewhurst until police arrived.

On June 27, 2015, a driver stopped outside of Teslin to help a woman Dewhurst was beating up.

The victim sustained bruising on her arms, legs, face and shoulders from the assault.

“Thank God a passerby stopped by – I don’t know what would have happened (otherwise),” Cozens commented.

The following day, Dewhurst shot through his cabin’s door with a shotgun he had stolen from his dad. A friend was able to convince him to turn over the shotgun.

Dewhurst also stole a chainsaw from a nearby shop and sold it for $250.

For the break and enter, Dewhurst received eight months in jail and four months for the theft of the vehicle, to be served consecutively.

For all the other offences, Dewhurst received concurrent jail sentences: six months for the assault, two for the careless use of a firearm and two months for the trespassing at night.

He will be on probation for 18 months following his release from the Whitehorse Correctional Centre.

With credit for time served before sentencing, Dewhurst will have four months left to serve.

Cozens ordered that Dewhurst pay back the $250 he acquired from selling the stolen chainsaw.