Article content When Samuel Wynne-McAughey was found drifting in and out of consciousness in his mom’s vehicle, police charged him with several offences, including impaired driving. In the Ontario Court of Justice at the Sudbury Courthouse, Wynne-McAughey, 36, who now lives in Chatham and is now drug-free, pleaded guilty to taking a motor vehicle without consent. Recommended Videos In exchange, the Crown dropped the other charges.
“I’ve come a long way in the last year,” he told Justice Vincenzo Rondinelli via Zoom link. “I have taken every single step I have had to take. I have been clean for a year ...
I got myself a job. I’ve given myself up to spiritual aspects in life.” “Glad to hear it,” Justice Rondinelli told Wynne-McAughey. Rondinelli, accepting a joint sentencing submission, issued a suspended sentence and one-year probation order that includes conditions such as not possessing weapons and taking treatment as recommended, in particular, for substance abuse.
The court heard through an agreed statement of facts that on May 2, 2025, Greater Sudbury paramedics were dealing with Wynne-McAughey in a 2007 Chevrolet, who was “nodding in and out of consciousness” in the driver’s seat. A check determined the vehicle belonged to Wynne-McAughey’s mother. Police contacted her.
She told officers she never gave her son permission to take the vehicle. Police arrested Wynne-McAughey and charged him with four offences, including impaired driving and possession of a controlled substance. Wynne-McAughey had a prior record that included assorted convictions from 2017 to 2024.
Defence lawyer Jacob Gauthier, in his sentencing address, said Wynne-McAughey is now working as a driller in British Columbia. “Most of his involvement in the criminal justice system is the result of opiate addiction,” said the lawyer. Gauthier said that since his arrest a year ago, Wynne-McAughey “made significant progress” in his life and did a six-month sober living program followed by counselling.
The lawyer said that while the incident was the result of opiate addiction, his client is taking responsibility for his actions, has addressed his addiction, and wants to move his life forward.” In 2020, Wynne-McAughey spoke to The Sudbury Star about his battles with addiction and how the time he spent with the Teen Challenge addiction recovery program (teenchallenge.ca) in London helped him get sober. He said he got into drugs in an attempt to cope with the sexual abuse he suffered as a child and the sudden death of his father. Wynne-McAughey recalled using a fentanyl patch.
It only took one time, and he was hooked immediately, he said. “That was it – I’d found the drug that numbed me the most. I didn’t want anything else.
It was within two months of trying a fentanyl patch that I was on the streets.” To read the story, click here: tinyurl.com/mvz97y2e. X: @HaroldCarmichae
