God delusion: ‘The spirits let me in’ man tells couple in luxury home bedroom on Sumas Mountain during non-violent home invasion
From religion to meth and back again, a 37-year-old offender is trying to reverse direction from path of addiction, violence and criminality
“I came up on Eagle Mountain to have a hot tub.”
That’s what a dripping wet man said to a couple as he was petting their dog in their bedroom in a luxury home on Sumas Mountain in Abbotsford one morning last fall.
“The spirits let me in.”
That, of course, was not true. In reality, 37-year-old Chevy Arnold Franke-Barton let himself in to the $2.5-million home on Eagle Mountain Drive after hiking up to the Lower Sumas Mountain neighbourhood and enjoying the family’s hot tub in the early hours of Sept. 14, 2024.
High on meth, and after an illegal soak, Barton then walked into the family’s house through an unlocked back door.
He walked around for a while then went into the couple’s bedroom. A dog in the bedroom barked. It was close to 7 a.m., and when the couple woke up, they saw Chevy Barton in their bedroom petting the dog, according to Crown counsel in Abbotsford provincial court on Wednesday (June 11, 2025).
Rather than freaking out, maybe luckily, they asked him what he was doing. That’s when he told the couple “I came up on Eagle Mountain to have a hot tub. The spirts let me in.”
He then apologized for “bugging” them and he left.
They avoided a violent confrontation that Abbotsford Police Department (APD) officers weren’t so lucky to avoid. Police were called, and the officers who arrived had to go down the steep hillside to apprehend Franke-Barton who had fled. During an altercation, Barton punched one officer in the chest while resisting arrest.
“They eventually handcuffed him and got him out of the gully.”
Religion led him to the streets
During the sentencing hearing on Wednesday, which I attended virtually to hear a different matter, Franke-Barton’s lawyer Ondine Snowdon explained, as defence counsel does, about his background.
She said Barton had been working in construction and had a “spiritual awakening” at some point.
“He’d been praying, attending church and had a strong urge to quit work and find out how to live without the modern entrapments of jobs and financial encumbrances,” Snowdon told the court.
“At the same time, he started treated his undiagnosed ADHD with street drugs.”
Needless to say, it didn’t go well. He exclusively used methamphetamine, which led to some degree of psychosis, which Snowdon said led to the home invasion.
“He realizes now that was a mistake,” Snowdon said of the meth usage.
Franke-Barton was also being sentenced for two other convictions, one from four months before the hot-tub home invasion on May 31, 2024, when he stole more than $200 worth of shoes and socks from the Abbotsford Walmart. Police were called, he was arrested and charged with theft $5,000 or under and resisting arrest.
After the break-and-enter home invasion, for which he pleaded guilty to the lesser included trespassing at night, he was released on bail in November 2024 with electronic monitoring. Warrants were twice issued for his arrest in the new year after non-appearances. Then on April 4, 2025, a keen-eyed APD officer spotted him at the Salvation Army shelter not wearing his electronic monitoring. Barton took off with cops in pursuit.
He was charged, yet again, with wilfully resisting or obstructing a peace officer as well as four breaches of release conditions.
After all his adventures that supposedly started with a "spiritual awakening," some shoplifting, a hot-tub home invasion, and months on the lam evading police, Franke-Barton is going to turn his life around, handing his “life over to god.”
That’s what he says.
Before the judge pointed out how disturbing the home invasion was despite how innocuously it was presented – “What if a teenage girl was home alone, or a mother or a wife? It would be terrifying” – he was asked if he wanted to say anything to the court.
“I’m truly sorry for my actions that day,” he said. “I never meant to hurt anybody. I never wanted to harm anybody.
“I’m turning my life over to god. I’m going to attend AA meetings so I can meet a new group of friends to be sober. I want to volunteer my time at the Salvation Army.”
Because he served 160 days in custody prior to this sentencing, which gave him credit for 240 days, he was give a sentence of time served and, more, importantly is now on 18 months of probation where he will be monitored.
Every time a drug-addicted offender is sentenced, there are promises to never do it again, to get treatment, to get sober, to turn lives around, to be a better person.
And sometimes it even happens.
-30-
Want to support independent journalism?
Consider becoming a paid subscriber or make a one-time donation so I can continue this work.
Paul J. Henderson
pauljhenderson@gmail.com
facebook.com/PaulJHendersonJournalist
instagram.com/wordsarehard_pjh
x.com/PeeJayAitch
wordsarehard-pjh.bsky.social