WITHIN months of suffering a bad workplace injury, Jordan Mitchell went from holding a steady job working on major civil infrastructure projects across the state to being an unemployed daily opioid user.
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Ultimately, he began dealing drugs to fund his habit and make some money for his family before he was caught with methamphetamine, thousands of dollars in cash, and a loaded pistol in his car in broad daylight near Maitland.
Mitchell, 26, was sentenced in Newcastle District Court on Wednesday afternoon to a three-year Intensive Correction Order, meaning after almost a year in jail on remand, he was released from custody to live under the supervision of the state for the balance of his sentence.
According to an agreed statement of facts, police stopped Mitchell in a BMW sedan at Heddon Greta after he left a Cliftleigh home about 12.30pm on May 30, 2023.
Inside the vehicle, and in a bag Mitchell was carrying, they found a seven-shot 0.22 calibre revolver containing five rounds, 63g of methamphetamine, 34 oxycodone tablets, and $18,000.
He was charged with a string of counts and pleaded guilty in February to possessing an unauthorised pistol and supplying prohibited drugs.
Other firearm, drug and proceeds of crime charges were taken into account when Judge Peter Whitford handed down the sentence this week.
Police had put a firearm prohibition order on Mitchell, which gave officers broad powers to search him without a warrant.
The court heard on Wednesday that Mitchell's life spiralled out of control after a workplace accident in 2022, in which he dislocated his arm in several places during a fall.
He required surgery and rehabilitation, and lost his job at a prominent civil construction firm.
After he ran out of legally-prescribed oxycodone tablets, which he had been given to manage pain, he began to source opioids illegally and ultimately tried methamphetamine.
By the time he was charged, he was a daily ice user and had turned to dealing drugs in order to fund his addiction and make some money for his family, the court heard.
Judge Whitford said the shoulder injury was the "catalyst for his downward spiral", and that it was a "quite particular and unusual set of circumstances that led him down this path of offending".
But he said Mitchell's case was one of "objectively very serious offending", and that carrying a loaded pistol in the community was "obviously capable of causing catastrophic injury".
Judge Whitford said Mitchell had reasonable-to-good prospects of rehabilitation with the proper supervision, and the right motivation, while served his sentence in the community.
