A Bucks County judge told a Bensalem woman she was lucky she wasn’t shot during an October 2015 incident in Bristol Township.
The comments to 22-year-old Bristol Township resident Kayla Dubois were made as she was sentenced to 18 to 23 months as part of a plea agreement.
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According to the authorities, Dubois’ boyfriend Terence Dais Jr., 26, of Bensalem, was caught by a homeowner in the 2900 block of Bancroft Avenue after he burglarized the shed in the resident’s yard.
“The victim said while he was detaining Dais, he heard 4-5 gunshots being fired from the other side of his fence,” Detective Doug Slemmer wrote in court papers. He also noted the homeowner’s wife also reported hearing and seeing a gun being fired in the direction of her and her husband.
The shots were fired by Dubois, Dais’ then-girlfriend.
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Luckily, no one was struck by the gun shots.
“You’re lucky to be alive,” Gibbons told Dubois, stating that the homeowner or police could have justifiably shot her.
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Dais was sentenced by Gibbons to four to eight years in state prison.
From the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office:
The attempted robbery was Dais’ second attempt to steal an all-terrain vehicle from the Bristol Township resident’s storage shed. On Oct. 14, he had entered the resident’s back yard and had broken the lock on the shed, but fled when an automatic security light came on.
He returned the next morning and broke into the same shed. Alerted by the noise behind his house, the resident looked outside, saw Dais entering the shed and hurried out to confront him.
The resident suffered minor injuries to his arms and legs as he pulled Dais off of the six-foot fence and subdued him. Dubois fired the shots during the struggle in an unsuccessful effort to get the resident to release Dais.
The resident’s wife witnessed the episode and called police, who recovered three shell casings and one spent round behind the house.
Dais had a significant criminal record and said he was addicted to drugs at the time of the crime. He regretted putting others in danger, said his attorney, Blake Jackman.
Dubois, who had no prior criminal history as an adult, had been led astray in part by her relationship with Dais, said her attorney, Timothy Barton.
“Her father mentioned to me that going to jail may have saved her life,” Barton told Gibbons. “She stands before you as a different person.”
As part of the plea agreement, Dais pleaded guilty to robbery, burglary, attempted theft and several lesser charges, and prosecutors dropped a charge of aggravated assault.
In addition to the prison time, Gibbons sentenced Dais to seven years of probation and Dubois to five years of probation for receiving stolen property.
