- Cecilia Roulette likely would have been facing a murder charge had she plunged the knife a little deeper or a little more to one side.
Remarkably, the woman she attacked survived a single stab wound to her heart.
- Roulette was messed up on booze and valium and had no memory of the February 2009 incident outside a Main Street hotel. It was only after the victim and other witnesses described the attack at a preliminary hearing last year that Roulette knew what she had done and agreed to plead guilty to aggravated assault, court was told Friday.
- “I’d like to say I’m very sorry and I deserve what I get,” Roulette, 47, told Judge Ray Wyant.
- Wyant sentenced Roulette to 5 1/2 years in prison, minus double-time credit of two years for time served.
- Court heard the 29-year-old victim and another woman had been ejected from the Woodbine Hotel bar and were fighting outside when Roulette overheard the victim make a threatening comment naming a local street gang. Roulette pulled a balaclava over her face, waved a knife at the victim and then stabbed her once in the heart before “calmly” walking away.
- When police arrested her a short time later, Roulette claimed the victim was a crack dealer who sold drugs to children.
- “I did the neighbourhood a favour,” she told police. “I hope I got her in the heart. I hope I f------ killed her.”
- It was agreed in court that the two women did not know each other.
- The victim spent four days in hospital and had to be revived repeatedly, said Crown attorney Scott Cooper, who recommended Roulette be sentenced to eight years in prison.
- “It’s hard to imagine conduct that needs to be denounced more,” Cooper said.
- Roulette’s criminal record spans her entire adult life and includes multiple convictions for violence. Wyant outlined a personal history he called “tragic in the extreme,” including years of extreme poverty, physical and sexual abuse, incest and alcoholism.
- When they were children, Roulette and her siblings were abandoned for months at a time while their mother left their first nation home to live with her boyfriend in Winnipeg.
- “It is completely intolerable that in a civilized society this kind of existence takes place,” he said.
- Wyant said he believed Roulette has reached “a turning point” in her life “but that chapter has yet to be written.”
I think this sentence is too harsh. People dont understand that prison is not effective and does not deter crime or reduce crime. We need to focus on the causes of crime and try to change that. This woman was subject to poverty, abuse and alcoholism and neglect and abandonment, which likely could have caused such behaviour. I agree that this type of behaviour needs to be denounced and is serious and she does have a violent and lengthy criminal record, but we also need to consider rehabilitation and in this case, I believe it is possible.
I think she should have been sentenced to only 2 years less a day in prison, so she could serve it in a provincial prison in Manitoba rather than being sent to Edmonton where she will have no family or friend support. She also should have gotten 3 years probation following the prison. This, I would argue, is a more appropriate sentence. She needs to attend counseling and treatment for possible behaviour and psychological problems and anger management programs.
No comments:
Post a Comment