A 69-year-old man who deserted from the U.S. Air Force four decades ago will be spending his last years in Canada in jail after being sentenced Monday for a series of brazen armed robberies on the North Shore and in Vancouver.
Thomas John Stone will spend almost three years in jail, on top of time he's already been in custody, for a series of gunpoint holdups at grocery stores committed between March 31 and Oct. 26, 2012.
Stone, also known as Thomas John Schwartz, served in the U.S. Air Force as a staff sergeant before deserting to Canada in June 1972 after becoming disillusioned with his country's role in the Vietnam War. By all accounts, he lived a quiet life in Squamish for many years under the assumed name Thomas Stone.
Stone told authorities he committed the holdups out of financial desperation, after racking up massive credit card debts and finding it impossible to support himself.
Crown counsel Lindsay Herron said Stone spent time casing the grocery stores he targeted and rehearsing the robberies before committing them.
On March 31, 2012 he walked into Safeway on Marine Drive in West Vancouver, wearing a ball cap and glasses, brandished a gun at a clerk and said, "If I don't see the money I'm going to drill you."
He got away with $1,200.
He did the same at SuperValu in Edgemont on April 14, 2012, telling the clerk, "Don't make a fuss or I'll shoot you."
One of the more dramatic holdups happened at the Queensdale Market on Lonsdale Avenue where a store manager grabbed one of Stone's wrists and wrestled with him after being threatened with the gun. The manager punched Stone in the face several times before Stone hit him in the head with the gun and ran away. The manager required nine stitches to his head.
Stone's biggest haul came after he went behind the customer service desk at Extra Foods on Vancouver's Kerr Street and pointed a handgun at the clerk, saying "Take me to where you've got the money." That time he made off with $13,000.
Stone also robbed an IGA in Vancouver and a Choices Market in Burnaby before his robbery spree ended.
After police in the Lower Mainland appealed for help from the public, they got a tip pointing to Stone. Two days after police appealed for information, on Dec. 15, 2012, Stone tried to cross the border in a taxi and was arrested by U.S. authorities. He later agreed to be brought back to Canada.
Herron told the court the handgun used in the robberies was never recovered. "Nobody knew if it was real or not," she said. "The victims thought it was real."
Before receiving his sentence, Stone stood up and spoke to the judge. He said he decided to commit the robberies after suffering severe financial setbacks in his late '60s. "I had no savings. I was still deeply in debt," he said.
Stone said he tried to rationalize the robberies, by thinking he was robbing from companies, not terrorizing people.
"I knew it was wrong," he said. "Many good people were victimized in ways they didn't deserve."
Stone's defence lawyer described the holdups as "an act of desperation."
Stone has no previous record.
In sentencing Stone, North Vancouver provincial court judge Steven Merrick said Stone would be facing five years in jail if he hadn't been in custody for a significant time already.
He is expected to be sent back to the U.S. after he serves his sentence.
