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Jan 24, 2024

St. John's man arrested with drugs in Tim Horton's parking lot tried to hide cocaine in his colostomy bag at while city lock

Judge to decide on jail time for 43-year-old Jason Gosse who nearly overdosed on

Judge to decide on jail time for 43-year-old Jason Gosse who nearly overdosed on fentanyl-laced Percocet in the front seat of his car in December 2021

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The Crown seeks a nine-month jail sentence for a St. John's man who was found passed out behind the wheel of a car, nearly overdosing on what he reportedly didn't realize was fentanyl.

Members of the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary responded to a call for assistance outside a Tim Horton's restaurant on Thorburn Road about 3:30 a.m. on Dec. 2, 2021, arriving to find paramedics and firefighters already on scene and Jason Gosse behind the wheel of a blue Audi, which was still in drive. Officers got Gosse – who was going in and out of consciousness and told them he had injected cocaine – out of the car, but he refused to go to hospital, asking instead to go to the lockup.

Police said he was carrying a set of brass knuckles and wearing no shirt under an open coat, and a colostomy bag was visible on his abdomen. In the car, officers found two unmarked bottles of various pills, a syringe with liquid in it, and nearly $2,000 cash.

At the lockup, Gosse refused to cooperate with a strip search, taking a baggie of a white substance from his pants and attempting to hide it inside the colostomy bag.

The baggie contained just under 21 grams of cocaine and the drugs in the pill bottles and syringe in the car were found to include 21 Ritalin tablets, 1 Dilaudid tablet, two methamphetamine pills and a pill originally thought to be Percocet. Further analysis later revealed it contained fentanyl.

Gosse was charged with a slew of offences, and has already pleaded guilty and been sentenced for some of them. He attended provincial court in St. John's Thursday for a sentencing hearing on six charges of possessing a controlled substance.

Gosse, 43, had initially been charged with possessing the drugs for the purpose of trafficking, but pleaded guilty to the lesser sentences instead.

Prosecutor Neil Smith told the court Gosse had provided proof of a Ritalin prescription for all but seven of the pills.

Smith argued for a nine-month sentence, submitting Gosse's 42-page criminal record and suggesting previous periods of incarceration, including a five-year jail term for a pharmacy robbery, had not deterred Gosse from drug-related offences. Possessing fentanyl, even if not for trafficking, is a serious offence, he argued.

"Because of its strength, it's extremely dangerous. The media has been full of stories of overdoses and death," Smith submitted. "It can kill you. It's a dangerous drug, even if it's for your own possession. Society still has an interest in its people."

"Because of its strength, it's extremely dangerous. The media has been full of stories of overdoses and death."— Neil Smith

Defence lawyer Danny Vavasour argued for a jail term of six-to-seven months, pointing to his client's guilty pleas and long-time drug addiction issues. Gosse didn't know he was using fentanyl and not Percocet, Vavasour said.

"This is why he came close to OD'ing — he was not aware he was consuming fentanyl," Vavasour submitted.

He told the court Gosse had started doing drugs at age 12, ending up in hospital for a near-overdose as a teenager. By age 20, he was into hard drugs and would "do everything he could get his hands on to prevent him getting dope-sick," Vavsour said. At one point years ago, Gosse had been prescribed five 80-gram oxycodone pills a day.

"It was an attempt by a health-care professional to wean him off what he was doing on the street," Vavasour told the court.

Provincial Court Judge Phyllis Harris asked the accused if he had anything to say to the court at the end of the hearing.

"Not at this time, Your Honour," he replied.

Harris is scheduled to sentence Gosse on the six drug charges on June 23. In the meantime, Gosse will make his next court appearance on June 8 on charges of dangerous driving, driving while prohibited, breaching a probation order, and four Highway Traffic Act offences.