One of the youngsters nabbed during a spate of break-and-enters last spring has been found guilty after trial.

The 15-year-old boy, who can only be identified as J.O., pleaded not guilty to a break-and-enter charge, saying that although he was at the Zircon Lane, Copper Ridge subdivision home at the time of the break-in, he did not actually go inside or take anything.

During the trial, the boy said he went to the house with two friends, one of whom used to live there, and wanted to pick something up.

The former resident of the house, Steven Jones, told the court that on their way to Zircon Lane, the boys decided to break into the house.

When they arrived, they first knocked to see if anyone was home, Jones said, then sliced open a window screen. One of the boys, a minor known only as B.W., climbed in and unlocked the door.

J.O. entered the house while Jones and B.W. waited on the threshold, Jones testified.

B.W. said it was Jones who went inside, while he and J.O. stayed at the door.

Unfortunately for the would-be burglars, someone was home. The woman living in the house told the court she awoke to the sound of the doorbell, but ignored it because she had just returned from work and was in bed trying to sleep.

About 10 minutes after hearing the bell, she heard a voice inside the house say, "She's sleeping.”

Thinking it was her brother, she turned to the door and saw a male in a yellow T-shirt standing in the doorway.

She shouted at the stranger and he ran out of the house, the woman testified.

B.W. said Jones came running out of the house with a black garbage bag in hand.

Jones denied being in the house, but the judge noted he would not have been able to see all he said he did unless he was actually inside the dwelling.

J.O. followed Jones, and B.W. took off in another direction.

The RCMP caught up with Jones and J.O. on the Elijah Smith Elementary School grounds just minutes later and arrested them.

J.O. was wearing a yellow T-shirt at the time of his arrest. B.W. was long gone, and neither of his friends identified him to police.

The next day, however, he told his father where the woman's laptop was stashed and later pleaded guilty to possession of stolen property for the laptop.

Though there were several evidentiary holes in the case, Judge Michael Cozens of the territorial court said the testimonies pointed to J.O. being the one who went the farthest into the house, while it was likely Jones at least stepped into the kitchen.

At the end of the trial, J.O. pleaded guilty to another theft, this one from the Canadian Tire store, where he was caught on video surveillance tape taking a TV and a home theatre system from the back of the building.

The items were later returned by J.O.'s co-accused.

In sentencing the boy, Cozens considered his past criminal record – J.O. is named in at least 60 police files – and his history of disobeying court orders.

Reading from a psychiatric assessment of the boy, he said, "In the past (J.O.) has showed absolutely no interest in attempting to follow his various orders of remand or probation. There are recurrent documentations of (J.O.) breaching his orders within days or hours of being released or warned.”

The judge also heard from the boy's probation officer, who said he hoped J.O. could clean up his act with the right support and discipline. He was not overly optimistic, however.

"It is true that quite often, as (the probation officer) has stated, the best indicators of future behaviour are past behaviour, but his reluctance to apply that to a youth is well-put because that is the whole principle behind youth dispositions – in that youth are at the beginning of their lives and have, perhaps, a greater potential for change.

"... J.O. is a young man at a critical point in his life. He has the capacity to behave better in the future than he has in the past through accessing the supports that are available to him. Whether he has the will to do so is really a question of choice and actions based on those choices, and time will tell.”

On top of the 143 days J.O. spent in custody before his trial, the judge gave him another 20 days in custody, then 10 days under supervision, followed by a year of probation.