It took about 15 minutes for Wesley Donald Alex Kowal to plead guilty in a Winnipeg courtroom Thursday to each of the dozens of thefts, break-and-enters and other property crimes he committed in a lengthy spree his own lawyer called “staggering.”
Provincial court Judge Sandra Chapman sentenced Kowal, 30, to six years in prison, minus about two years he served in jail awaiting trial, for the raft of property crimes. They included 35 thefts under $5,000, seven thefts over $5,000, two frauds, nine counts of possession of property obtained by crime over $5,000, seven counts of mischief and a slew of motor vehicle thefts and break-and-enters.
Kowal victimized people and businesses in Winnipeg, rural Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia from August 2021 to March 2023. Many of the incidents involved breaking into vehicles and making off with tools, equipment and other goods, pilfering licence plates, and stealing trucks and trailers. Kowal also broke into businesses, making off with tools or other valuable items.
Crown prosecutor Jeff Nichols said, based on the available information, about $90,000 worth of goods were stolen.
Kowal’s lawyer, Brett Gladstone, told court Kowal became addicted to methamphetamine while living in British Columbia in 2021, racking up mountains of debt he tried to pay off by committing property crimes.
Gladstone said Kowal was kidnapped, assaulted and held for ransom as a result of the cash he owed, which his mother in Winnipeg paid off, but his debts remained.
“The situation prevailing is he found himself severely addicted to drugs… He did not seek adequate help before things got way out of control for him,” Gladstone said. “It’s a whopping spree. It’s a staggering amount of charges.”
Kowal had no criminal record before his addiction.
Gladstone and Nichols jointly recommended the hefty prison sentence. It will begin after the federal prison sentence he’s already serving in Alberta for possession of drugs for the purpose of trafficking ends in February 2026. Kowal appeared in the Winnipeg court via video link from the federal institution in Drumheller, Alta.
Kowal spree came to a stop when he was picked up by RCMP in rural Manitoba in March 2023 and held for trial.
He committed another series of crimes after leaving Winnipeg’s Behavioral Health Foundation earlier that month, Gladstone told court. Kowal had been ordered to reside at the addictions treatment facility by a judge earlier in the spree, as Gladstone worked to have the charges dealt with in Winnipeg’s drug treatment court program.
That special court could have given Kowal a sentence to be served out in the community, provided he complied with a case-management plan and addiction treatment, among other conditions. That hope was dashed when he breached his court-ordered conditions by leaving the foundation’s grounds.
“It was during the COVID era, and there was a disagreement about whether or not he was able to deal with medical procedures as he saw fit… things really deteriorated really quickly,” Gladstone said.
The lawyer called the fact he wasn’t able to have Kowal’s matters dealt with in drug treatment court “unfortunate,” as he was “exactly the type of guy where you deal with the addiction, you deal with the circumstance that caused the criminality.”
Kowal has gotten sober while in federal prison, Gladstone said, calling him a good candidate for rehabilitation despite the extent of the spree.
“This is not a young guy… who just doesn’t get it and is going to be around the corner again. He saw exactly how far this took him,” the lawyer said.
Chapman said she hopes Kowal is able to deal with his addiction in the future, encouraging him to get into programming while in prison.
“The last thing we want is for you to get back out and get back into the drugs,” she told him. “There are obviously a lot of victims out there as a result of these crimes.”
erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca
Erik Pindera
Reporter
Erik Pindera is a reporter for the Free Press, mostly focusing on crime and justice. The born-and-bred Winnipegger attended Red River College Polytechnic, wrote for the community newspaper in Kenora, Ont. and reported on television and radio in Winnipeg before joining the Free Press in 2020. Read more about Erik.
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