A Whitehorse man sentenced for robbery and assault Friday stood, shackled, in stark contrast to his sister, a thoughtful young woman present in the courtroom gallery.

The two family members embodied the divergent paths available to at-risk youth in the Yukon, their presence serving as a reminder of how easily vulnerable individuals can go astray.

A territorial court judge handed Tim Ayotte, 21, four years in jail for crimes committed last October.

On Oct. 1, RCMP officers stopped him following a reported dispute in downtown Whitehorse. After he fled, police tried to handcuff him, during which Ayotte continued to resist arrest, according to the agreed statement of facts.

Out on bail several days later and under the influence of alcohol, Ayotte punched a man on the Millennium Trail, then successfully outran a Mountie after being confronted.

On Oct. 16, he and two other masked men broke into the home of a man in search of crack and cash. The resident was wrestled to the floor and bear-sprayed. Ayotte struck him over the head with an axe handle.

After making off with the victim's television, laptop and iPhone, but no drugs, the three men were found by police in the crawl space of a Whitehorse home later that day.

"These type of events have become all too common, even in small cities such as Whitehorse,” Judge Peter Chisholm said Friday.

He said Ayotte's difficult upbringing and addiction issues "cannot be used as a crutch to justify the type of crimes to which Mr. Ayotte has pleaded guilty.”

The judge also noted the pre-meditation involved in the robbery as well as Ayotte's criminal record, including four assault convictions.

"He comes from a very troubled background,” Chisholm said, noting the Whitehorse Correctional Centre inmate witnessed violence and alcohol abuse in the home.

"His tumultuous and difficult childhood explains in part his situation before the court,” he added.

He credited the young man for admitting guilt and taking responsibility for his actions.

"I cannot say that his prospects toward rehabilitation are poor.”

Ayotte was sentenced to four years for break and enter, three for robbery, nine months for possession of stolen property, 60 days for assault and 30 days for several court breaches.

The time will be served concurrently, amounting to four years, minus nine months for time served in pre-sentence custody.

He will be under a mandatory 10-year firearms ban upon release.

Jail sentences exceeding two years for criminal acts are served in a federal penitentiary, which would include educational and rehabilitation programs.

"This is a chance for you to really make some changes in your life and better yourself and work at some intensive counselling and treatment,” Chisholm said.

Immediately following the judge's sentence, Ayotte shouted as he began to walk out of the courtroom: "Go suck dk, you little bh. Fing punk-a little b*h.”

Chisholm did not respond.

Unable to develop "pro-social attachments” and "oppositional toward those in positions of authority,” Ayotte was taken into foster care before the age of five, Chisholm noted earlier. He entered a group home as a teenager.

"He came into trouble with the law at age 16,” Chisholm said.

Last Tuesday, Ayotte rose in court to address the judge.

"I was a very angry child. And also I had behavioural issues,” he said.

"I ended up having problems at my group home, little problems with the law .... I ended up as a drug-using individual.”

Originally from Burwash Landing, Ayotte has worked at dishwashing and construction jobs.

"But it ended up where the drugs became too much of an issue” — the reason behind his behaviour last October, he said.

"I just ask that you look at me like a human being so that I have a fighting chance....

"I feel that I've really let down my family. I've really just let everyone down,” he said.

"I wasn't in my right state of mind ... when I do drugs, I just turn kind of swirly ... I turn into an animal or something.

"I was one step away from taking it up a notch and almost doing heroin,” he said of his mental state that fateful October day.

"I'm a citizen that's been not taken care of properly by society throughout my history.”

Ayotte's sister Sharda was in court last Tuesday.

"It's obviously pretty scary, the possibility of going to a federal penitentiary,” she told the Star. "The whole family is pretty scared.

"It's pretty sad to see all this happening.”

The 24-year-old said she retains hope her brother could rehabilitate, with the goal of "actually living a life, instead of whatever this is....”

Sharda, who has worked in a Whitehorse law office and is currently employed at Staples, recalled their often-difficult pre-teenage years together in foster care, as well as his reaction to life in the group home.

"In a way, I was proud of him, because he would speak out against what was happening to them.

"Sometimes, it seems, people who are the most vocal in those situations end up in a downward spiral, while we end up reaping the benefits of being meek,” she said, referring specifically to herself and her older sister.

"On the one hand, I don't want to see him go to a penitentiary because I don't want to see him associating with those people, but on the other hand I'd rather see him in a program where he gets clean and gets his priorities straight.”