Ryan (Big Red) Daigneault told a judge he can appreciate why there might be some doubts that he has changed the trajectory of his life.
“I understand the Crown’s questioning of how we’ve been here before but the difference before the court today is I have a foundation I’m standing on,” said the former president of the London chapter of the Outlaw motorcycle club as he stood in the prisoner’s box at his sentencing hearing on substantial gun and drug trafficking charges Thursday.
Daigneault, 48, a massive man who has made a career of criminal activity, was charged in March 2021 along with his underling Daniel (Tattoo) Bell, 37, in an OPP crackdown after they were duped by a police agent into selling him 3.5 kilograms of high-grade cocaine and a loaded handgun, plus offering him membership to the motorcycle club.
He and Bell pleaded guilty in February to two counts of trafficking in cocaine and one count of transferring or offering to transfer a handgun just before they were going on trial. While Bell has been on bail since his arrest, Daigneault has been waiting in jail since January 2023 on unrelated charges that have been withdrawn as part of the guilty plea deal. Before that he was on strict house-arrest bail.
When he was admitted into the Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre, Daigneault was a high-school dropout with a Grade 11 education and weighed in at 486 pounds, down from his all-time heaviest weight of 560 pounds. In the 20 months he’s been in jail, he’s dropped 190 pounds and kept a close track of his Type 2 diabetes.
He produced letters and certificates showing he has excelled in high school equivalency classes with glowing comments from his teachers. He has only seven credits before he earns his high school diploma.
He said he’s done particularly well in advanced Bible studies and is applying to Bible colleges. He told Superior Court Justice Spencer Nicholson he intends to follow that dream whether in or out of prison.
“This is not just me talking about the changes I want to do, these are actual things that are happening and are going forward,” Daigneault said.
At the hearing for both Daigneault and Bell, assistant Crown attorney Kristina Mildred said the prosecution is seeking a 10-year prison sentence for Daigneault. Once various pre-sentence credits are factored in, it would leave six years and four months left to serve.
But his defence lawyer, Alexandra Mamo, argued for a seven-year sentence, that with credits, would be reduced to four years and three months.
That would be shorter than the five-year term that is part of a joint sentencing submission for Bell, who was described by Mildred as “a trusted courier” for Daigneault and who carried out the orders and delivered the cocaine and gun to the police agent.
“I sincerely apologize for my mistakes and I’m more than willing to take the consequences for those mistakes that I made,” Bell, who has been studying at a trade school, told Nicholson. “I’ve been doing my best to turn my life around and get away from the lifestyle.”
Bell has no criminal record. His defence lawyer, Robert Farrington, told Nicholson Bell was not “the principal individual… although it’s clear he was a willing participant and was assigned the job of doing the actual hand-to-hand transactions.”
Daigneault has a criminal record but no previous sentence was long enough to send him to a federal prison.
He’s made promises before. In 2008, he was shot three times in the chest in a shooting that Mildred told the judge “was related to his involvement in the Outlaws organization.
“Being shot three times was not enough for him to cut ties,” she said.
He was back before an Ontario Court judge in 2016 to be sentenced for trafficking in hydromorphone where, through his previous defence lawyer, he said he was retired from the biker world and hadn’t been involved in any criminal organization since 2012. He wanted to leave London to get away from his associates who “were on the wrong side of the law.”
He wanted to deal with his health issues and get a fresh start. The judge rejected the Crown’s argument that Daigneault should be jailed and granted him a suspended sentence with probation.
“Mr. Daigneault has been here. He may say a number of things to you today… we’ve been here before and his behaviour has only escalated,” Mildred said to Nicholson.
Daigneault has been involved with the Outlaws for 25 years – “his whole adult life,” Mildred said – and rose through the ranks to president of the local chapter. He bragged during his exchanges with the police agent that he had been offered the national presidency.
“He was a leader of a notorious motorcycle club known for criminality and he was the one who ultimately had the control over and directed the offences before the court today,” she said.
Mamo said her initial sentencing position was nine to 10 years, but landed on a global sentence of seven years because of lockdown and overcrowding conditions at the jails and strict house arrest conditions before Daigneault was put in custody.
There was no denying he has been involved in crime for decades. However, Mamo said Daigneault has strong family supports, although his relationship with his late father became strained after his parents separated when he was a teenager.
His father died in the past two months while Daigneault has been jailed, Mamo said, which has been difficult for her client.
She said among his health issues, Daigneault developed an opioid addiction after he was shot, but has been clean for about a decade. And unlike in 2016, when he said he wanted to change his life “he’s put his money where his mouth is. He’s not making promises with nothing to point to or rely on. He’s taken this time in custody to better himself.”
Nicholson asked how he can be sure Daigneault won’t go back to a criminal lifestyle once he is out of prison.
“I think what he’s done in custody shows that he has had a wake-up call,” Mamo said.
Daigneault told the judge this time he is sincere. “The difference between then and now is my father passed away.
“My father passed away at a time that I wish he was still here so I could show him the changes that I’ve made,” he said.
Nicholson will have a sentencing decision for Daigneault and Bell on Nov. 26.