A former Kingston resident who texted an ex-girlfriend what his lawyer suggests were hollow threats to randomly murder women has been given a six-month conditional sentence to serve in the community, the first three months of it on home confinement.

Aaron Runnalls, 36, pleaded guilty on Friday in Kingston’s Ontario Court of Justice to making a threat against “unknown persons” and, in addition to his community sentence, has been placed on probation for the maximum allowable period of three years.

Justice Larry O’Brien imposed conditions on Runnalls that during his probationary period he must complete all assessments, counselling and rehabilitative programs as directed by his probation officer, including the Partner Assault Response Program, anger management and mental health counselling, specifically for depression and anxiety. He’s also subject to a 10-year firearms and weapons prohibition and is barred from contact with his ex-wife, who reported the contents of the offending text to Kingston Police after its recipient shared it with her.

Runnalls, the judge was told, achieved the rank of second lieutenant in the Canadian Forces before he was discharged as medically unfit, due to his mental health record.

He was also on probation when he sent the text, the result of having been found guilty of criminal harassment in April 2015. At the time, he had no prior record and was granted a discharge, conditional upon successful completion of three years of probation.

But his lawyer, Dawn Quelch, noted he didn’t complete probation, so his discharge doesn’t stand.

Assistant Crown attorney Natalie Thompson said Runnalls was living alone in Kingston on June 7 of last year when he began texting an ex-girlfriend in Ottawa at 8 a.m. The two had remained friends, Justice O’Brien was told, and, according to Thompson, the ex-girlfriend and Runnalls’ former wife had also developed a friendship.

In his text, he complained “women hate me,” Thompson told the judge, and he fantasized about shooting them in the head with a crossbow — in the mall or at a university. He posited that mass murder would give him 15 minutes of fame and told his friend he wanted to hurt people the way he feels hurt, then asked her: “What’s wrong with me?”

Defence lawyer Quelch concurred with the Crown prosecutor that “this is behaviour that needs to be deterred,” but she also suggested to the judge that her client’s text was an ill-conceived bid for his friend’s attention and support.

She read Justice O’Brien a letter from the recipient of the text, who writes that she was concerned when she received it, but not enough to call police.

Her letter states that it was Runnalls’ well-being and safety she was worried about when she shared the contents of the text with his former wife.

The letter characterizes Runnalls as “a gentle giant,” who would never follow through on the threats contained in the text and is only a danger to himself.

Quelch revealed that Runnalls has a history of depression and suicidal ideation dating back to his teens, and she told Justice O’Brien that the strict bail conditions to which he’s been subject for almost six months have already had significant consequences for him. The restrictions have made it difficult for him to access his military discharge benefits, she said, and some of those benefits have already run out.

She also told the judge he’s also mortified that “words of anguish” he shared with a confidant in the hope they’d secure her sympathy were used instead to form the basis of a criminal charge.

And as concerning as her client’s words may be, Quelch said: “Your honour, I ask that you not put this man in jail.”

She told Justice O’Brien that her client spent five days in Quinte Detention Centre following his initial arrest and in that time saw a man stabbed in the neck over drugs. He’s consequently terrified of jail, she said.

If custody is deemed absolutely necessary, however, Quelch urged Justice O’Brien to make it a sentence Runnalls could serve in the community.

A conditional sentence, she argued, would permit her client to engage in the positive activities that “prevent him falling into that emotional black space.”

Crown prosecutor Thompson took a different view. She recommended that Runnalls be sentenced to 60 days behind bars and told the judge his text and prior criminal harassment, which involved yet another woman, demonstrates “there’s a pattern of behaviour that suggests Mr. Runnalls has a problem with women.”

She also held that “the circumstances of the threat are so serious that the Crown takes the position nothing short of jail would be appropriate.”

Justice O’Brien questioned the efficacy of the Crown’s recommendation, however.

“Is 30 or 60 days going to do much in an institution?” he asked.

He observed that there are instances where “institutions do change mindsets, but “I’m not sure Mr. Runnalls fits in that group.”

He dismissed the opinion of Runnalls’ friend, however, who suggested police were overzealous and asserted in her letter that he should never have been charged and that the charge should now be dropped.

Runnalls’ threat, Justice O’Brien told the lawyers, was “a risk to the community” and “we can’t just gamble that the threat isn’t serious. The risk is too high.”

After permitting him to serve his sentence in his home, however, Justice O’Brien alluded to the counselling he’s ordered and told Runnalls: “You’ve got to work hard on this, Aaron. You’ve got a lot to work on.” Then he warned him: “If you’re back before any court, with this type of [charge] record, you’re going in.”

syanagisawa@postmedia.com