By Peter Downs, Standard Staff Posted 9 hours ago
She remains haunted by the night two years ago, when the two men burst into her apartment and threatened to kill her and two friends if they didn't deliver drugs and money they didn't have in the first place.
And she's petrified the pair found guilty of mounting the botched home-invasion robbery in Niagara Falls will hunt her down.
During sentencing submissions Tuesday for one of the attackers — Darvin Argueta, 26, of St. Catharines — assistant Crown attorney Andrew Brown revealed the fragile state of the 29-year-old single mother whose Heywood Ave. apartment was ransacked.
"I firmly believe that one day vengeance will be sought on me by the perpetrator Darvin Argueta," the woman said in a victim impact statement read by Brown.
Argueta was found guilty in May of 10 charges in the violent robbery Oct. 5, 2009, including forcible confinement, assault causing bodily harm, assault with a weapon and robbery.
Argueta's accomplice, Ryder Guerrero, previously pleaded guilty to robbery with a weapon in the matter and was sentenced to nine years in jail.
Court has heard the two men were looking for a former tenant they believed was a drug dealer, but the man had moved out. A woman — who knew nothing of the previous tenant — had just moved into the apartment.
Two male friends were helping the woman set up furniture the night Argueta and Guerrero burst in.
They ordered all three occupants to the ground and threatened to shoot them if they didn't hand over drugs and money.
The two male victims were both beaten by Guerrero with a metal pipe.
While court has heard Argueta pointed something at the victims and threatened to kill them, Judge Ann Watson ruled the Crown hadn't proved beyond reasonable doubt that he was armed with a real gun.
Brown is seeking a jail sentence of six to eight years against Argueta, but he urged the judge to consider a sentence on the "higher side" of the range.
"It was Mr. Argueta who was in command or in control of the situation," he said in Welland court. "It was Mr. Argueta directing them at the barrel of what appeared to be a sawed-off shotgun to lay down on the floor."
Defence lawyer Michael Peterson pushed for a sentence in the range of three to five years.
He maintained there's no conclusive evidence to indicate his client — who has no previous criminal record — was the "ringleader" in charge of the break-in and robbery.
"Mr. Guerrero had a mind of his own and I don't think we can forego that Mr. Guerrero acted the way he acted regardless of what Mr. Argueta said."
The two sides are set to continue sentencing arguments Friday morning. The Crown is arguing Argueta deserves no extra credit for the time he's spent in custody since his arrest Jan. 7, 2010, while the defence wants the judge to award him two-for-one credit on that time.
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