Fentanyl dealer asks B.C. court for shorter sentence, citing deportation risk

A convicted fentanyl dealer from B.C.'s Lower Mainland has lost his bid for a lighter sentence that would have decreased his risk of deportation.

The Court of Appeal heard Sean Delano Stampp's plea this fall, and acknowledged the impact deportation would have on his fiancée and three children in the province – but ultimately decided to uphold his sentence of one year behind bars.

"Collateral immigration consequences are but one of the relevant factors that must be taken into account in determining an appropriate sentence," Justice Lauri Ann Fenlon wrote in a decision posted online last week.

The court heard Stampp is a permanent resident who immigrated from Jamaica with his family as a child.

Under federal law, permanent residents who are convicted of drug trafficking are deemed inadmissible to Canada – and those sentenced to six months or more lose their right to appeal deportation orders.

Fenlon noted it is "an error in principle" for judges not to consider immigration consequences during sentencing, but found the seriousness of Stampp's crime overruled those considerations.

She noted that he was involved in a dial-a-dope operation that dealt exclusively with the sale of fentanyl, a drug "responsible for hundreds of deaths in B.C. every month."

"In my view, imposing a sentence of six months less a day for fentanyl trafficking in the circumstances of this case would not be proportionate to the gravity of the offence and the degree of responsibility of the offender," she wrote.

"He was not an addict, but sold fentanyl entirely for financial gain."

And while Stampp did not have a prior criminal record, the court heard he was on probation as part of a conditional discharge granted after he was caught dealing previously in 2018.

He was arrested again in April 2019, when Coquitlam RCMP began tracking a cellphone number used in a local dial-a-dope operation. An undercover officer then arranged a meeting with Stampp, who was then 21 years old, and purchased one-eighth of fentanyl from him for $480.

Prosecutors originally sought a sentence of 22 months, but the judge opted for a lighter punishment – one that went well below the usual range of 18 months to three years.

In doing so, the trial judge considered a number of mitigating factors, including that Stampp had "placed his life on a more positive trajectory by disassociating himself from criminal associates, obtaining regular employment and having the support of his young family, for whom he is currently the sole financial support."

The court heard Stampp's oldest child lives with his ex-partner, while his younger two live with him and his fiancée.

The judge also considered Stampp's mental health challenges, which included a previous diagnosis of major depressive disorder and substance-induced psychosis in 2017 – though an argument from Stampp's lawyers that he was experiencing psychosis again at the time of his latest arrest was rejected by both courts.

The dealer had “stopped using psychosis-inducing drugs by the end of 2017,” Fenlon wrote.