A Winnipeg teen who sparked a machete attack on a 64-year-old man should be sentenced to 15 months custody and community supervision, a judge said Thursday, but it will be some time before he learns how much of that sentence will be spent behind bars.
The man’s lawyer is arguing the sentence should be reduced in consideration of the lengthy period he has spent on bail since the June 2009 attack.
Judge Ted Lismer adjourned sentencing to allow the defence time to prepare an additional sentencing submission.
A final sentencing date will be set later this summer.
Court has heard the then 17-year-old accused had been drinking heavily and was in the company of two boys — one 16, one 15 — he had met that same day when the trio came across the victim shortly after midnight, walking in the vicinity of Aberdeen Avenue and McGregor Street.
The victim was “minding his own business” when the accused instigated a verbal exchange with the victim and punched him in the head, knocking him to the ground, Crown attorney Susan Baragar told court at an earlier sentencing hearing. The accused sprayed him with bear repellent and kicked him in the head.
The two co-accused joined in the attack, the older of the two slicing one of the victim’s shoulders with a machete.
The 16-year-old co-accused was previously sentenced to 18 months in jail, while the 15-year-old was sentenced to just under one year in jail.
Defence lawyer Jody Ostapiw said her client has had no more run-ins with the law while on bail and urged Lismer to sentence him to probation.
The accused was the only one of the three teens to be released on bail. That fact should not entitle him to a more lenient sentence, Baragar argued.
Lismer agreed, noting the accused was allowed to live under relaxed house arrest conditions with limited monitoring while his two co-accused were confined in jail.
“The only meaningful and just sentence that will hold the accused accountable is a period of custody,” he said Thursday.
If this teen has obeyed his conditions while on bail, which he has, he should not spent any more time in prison. He was intoxicated and impaired, which is a mitigating factor in this case. He should receive programming for violence prevention and risk management and emotion management but be placed on probation. Prison would not help him at all.
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