Man convicted of Caswells clothing store robbery

Aug 27, 2023

Gary Alexander Iron, 40, is a repeat offender who punched the store's owner and fled in stolen clothes.

A Saskatoon judge has convicted a repeat offender of robbing a downtown Saskatoon store — punching the store’s owner twice before fleeing in stolen clothes — in May 2022.

Gary Alexander Iron, 40, left 85 cents and a button on the store’s counter in exchange for a $295 puffer vest and a $185 shirt, Saskatoon Court of King’s Bench Justice Brenda Hildebrandt noted in a written decision.

Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.

Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.

Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.

Don't have an account? Create Account

Iron had previously been convicted of a 2014 robbery of another downtown business, Bateman’s Jewelry, and declared a dangerous offender with an indeterminate sentence based on his criminal history. However, he was later acquitted upon appeal. The Supreme Court of Canada upheld the acquittal last November.

Iron’s two-day trial for the Caswells robbery took place in May and heard from four Crown witnesses, including the store’s owner, an employee, a customer who was there at the time and a Saskatoon police officer who investigated. The defence argued Iron’s identity as the robber was not proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

“In the 1994 movie, The Shawshank Redemption, the narrator asks, ‘I mean, seriously, how often do you really look at a man’s shoes?’ It appears the answer is more often than the script writers envisioned, as this case, which focuses on the issue of identity, demonstrates,” Hildebrandt wrote in her decision.

The store’s owner, Gordon Burgess, and an employee testified that the robber had been directed to a dressing room and came out wearing the vest and shirt. Burgess said the man had also tried to take jeans out of his hands, but he told the man, “These aren’t yours — they’re for somebody else.”

Get the latest headlines, breaking news and columns.

By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.

A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder.

The next issue of Afternoon Headlines will soon be in your inbox.

We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try again

He testified the man went to the cash register and left 85 cents and a button from his pocket before walking around the store some more.

Burgess said he asked the man if he was going to pay for the items and the man replied, “The old lady got it.” He told the man there’s “no old lady here” and he had to pay for the clothes or go back to the dressing room to take them off, Burgess said.

“The thief then lowered his sunglasses and looked at Mr. Burgess, who repeated the direction regarding returning to the dressing room if he was not going to pay for the goods. Following a ‘shuffle step’ toward the dressing room, the thief turned around quickly and hit Mr. Burgess twice before exiting the front door of Caswells and turning to the right,” Hildebrand wrote.

Burgess, who was knocked to the ground, confirmed in court that the vest Iron was wearing when he was arrested was the stolen vest.

Const. Sean Bonynge, a bike patrol officer, got surveillance images from a nearby building and noticed the robber was wearing distinctive shoes. He later found a man wearing the same shoes and vest, with the same hairstyle as the robber, outside the former downtown location of the STC Emergency Wellness Centre, court heard. The man identified himself as Gary Iron.

Hildebrandt concluded that Iron was the same man shown in the surveillance videos, noting Iron shared the same “unique dimpled chin and strong jawline” as the man in the footage.

Iron was previously convicted in 2017 for robbing two businesses in a two-week period in 2014, and received a six-year prison sentence. After credit for time served on remand, he had just over two years left to serve.

A sentencing date for his latest conviction has not been set.

The Saskatoon StarPhoenix has created an Afternoon Headlines newsletter that can be delivered daily to your inbox so you are up to date with the most vital news of the day. Click here to subscribe.

Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion and encourage all readers to share their views on our articles. Comments may take up to an hour for moderation before appearing on the site. We ask you to keep your comments relevant and respectful. We have enabled email notifications—you will now receive an email if you receive a reply to your comment, there is an update to a comment thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information and details on how to adjust your email settings.

To contribute to the conversation, you need to be logged in. If you are not yet registered, create your account now - it's FREE.