While a young man's plea to be sentenced to the Yukon's jail is emotionally compelling, the cold hard facts send him back to a federal penitentiary Outside, the chief territorial judge concluded today.

Noting it was a particularly difficult sentencing, Judge Heino Lilles handed 22-year-old Ricky William Linklater three years and five months in jail for a robbery and attempted robbery last September.

'Robberies occur too frequently in this community,' said Lilles, noting the risk of violence escalates when robbers use weapons, knives or guns especially when they're 'grossly intoxicated' by drugs.

At the time, Linklater was high on cocaine, and he confessed to police he'd committed the robberies in an attempt to get more drug money.

Lilles said Linklater's aboriginal status, unfortunate upbringing and drug use don't mitigate the overarching need to protect the public in this case.

The young man grew up surrounded by alcohol and violence, and was essentially raised by a grandmother who died more than a decade ago.

The young man, who'd only been recently released on parole from a previous robbery, had asked the judge to sentence him to a term of less than two years so he could serve his sentence in the Yukon, close to family and other supporters.

He'd argued at his hearing last week that he's more likely to continue to stay motivated to beat his addictions and other varied problems if he's near family.

While that argument is 'compelling on an emotional level,' an objective analysis of the facts suggests a federal prison term of two years or more, Lilles said.

Last Sept. 14, Linklater walked into the Riverside Grocery, armed with a bloody hypodermic needle, and demanded cash.

'I have AIDS, give me all your money,' Lilles recounted Linklater as telling the clerk.

The cashier called for another employee in a back room to call 911, and Linklater left.

The next evening, he showed up at the Roadhouse off-sales liquor store, held a knife close to the clerk's stomach and demanded money. Once the till was opened, he made off with $570.

A policewoman investigating his case arrested him the next day when she spotted him on a street corner.

He'd been released from a B.C. penitentiary the month before having taken no treatment and walked out 'without a plan,' Lilles noted.

Linklater took the matter to trial, and only changed his plea to guilty once Lilles ruled his confession to police was admissible, leading the judge to say he gave the young man little to no credit for that guilty plea.

While a pre-sentence report suggested Linklater has shown some remorse to his victims, Lilles noted he continues to paint himself as a victim.

He said the young man's prospects for change are 'largely if not entirely speculative' and noted those rehabilitation prospects are based on what others can do to help Linklater, 'not what he will do to address his many issues.'

Though he'd asked to be sent to a federal jail when he was sentenced for an earlier robbery at age 19 in order to have access to the more intense, long-term programming there, Linklater's decision to continue his drug use in the penitentiary was his alone, Lilles said.

Lilles said he wasn't convinced by Linklater's story that he placed himself in the penitentiary's segregation unit as self-defence.

Linklater had said he was sexually assaulted and otherwise victimized after running up drug debts. He was moved between prisons three times to get a fresh start.

Lilles pointed out the young man had the support of the native brotherhood to re-enter general population, but Linklater chose not to.

In the seven months he's been remanded at WCC, Linklater has been kept in segregation on his request.

He's been unable to take programming at WCC because of his status as a parole violator, a policy Lilles called 'unfortunate and arbitrary.'

However, said Lilles, Linklater has also had five major rule violations at the jail, including setting a fire, spitting and swearing at guards, and throwing chairs.

Linklater was also sentenced today to three months' jail concurrent to his other sentences for assaulting a corrections officer by spitting in his face. The anxiety that he'd be afflicted with a communicable disease from Linklater caused the jail guard and his family considerable distress and inconvenience, the judge noted.

Lilles opted to give Linklater one-for-one credit for his pre-trial custody at WCC. Usually, remand time is given double credit.

The attempted robbery conviction garnered an additional five months on top of the remand time, while the three years was for the Roadhouse robbery.

All sentences are concurrent to Linklater's current term, which ends mid-September, for violating his parole.

Calling Linklater's problems 'many and complex,' Lilles urged federal jail officials to have the young man assessed for fetal alcohol syndrome, depression from which he's suffered since he was 15 and psycho-educational problems.

Functionally illiterate, Linklater should take literacy and life skills training as well as training in carving, carpentry and mechanics, Lilles said.

Given that one of Linklater's few long-term hopes for work is from his skills in the bush, prosecutor David McWhinnie called for only the minimum 10-year firearms ban.