Winnipeg man gets 3.5 years prison for fight over the phone

'Severe beating' over a phone

Victim’s face ‘absolute mess;’ man gets 3 1/2 years

A fight over a telephone has landed a 34-year-old Winnipeg man a 3 1/2-year prison sentence.

John Two-Heart pleaded guilty to one count of breaking and entering and assault causing bodily harm in connection with the June 7, 2008, fracas.

Two-Heart received double credit for time served, reducing his remaining sentence to one year.

Court heard the male victim suffered a “severe beating” at the hands of three men, two of whom were armed with a baseball bat and a wrench.

“The victim’s face was an absolute mess as a result of this beating,” said Crown attorney Rustyn Ullrich. “This was a concerted effort by all three to beat the victim mercilessly.”

Jennifer Bruyere, Two-Heart’s common-law wife and the “instigator” of the fight, pleaded guilty to one count of uttering threats and was sentenced to time served.

Ullrich said Bruyere had been dispatched to the victim’s North End home to retrieve a telephone a relative had lent him when the two became embroiled in a heated argument on the street. Bruyere threatened to send her boyfriend to the victim’s house.

The threat was fulfilled. Two-Heart, who was drunk, and two other men stormed over to the man’s rooming house and beat the man about the face and body. The victim’s eyes were swollen shut and his back was covered in large welts, Ullrich said.

“This is as close to an aggravated assault as you can get,” Ullrich told Judge Sandy Chapman.

Pam Smith, Two-Heart’s lawyer, argued he should be sentenced to time served, noting the victim has “moved on” and holds no grudge against Two-Heart.

“(The victim) says they were both drunk and if he had been sober it might have turned out different,” Smith said.

Bruyere’s lawyer said she regrets her part in the senseless attack.

“She feels bad that this happened over a phone,” Kevin Sneesby said. “She is shaking her head at this.”

I feel that considering the fact that this man was intoxicated at the time and likely incoherent and did not know fully, what he was doing, I think that the jail time of one year (after double time) is appropriate. I would not have agreed with 3.5 years.