Prisoner sentenced in knife attacks

A man serving a life sentence for double murder was sentenced Tuesday for his role in a brutal gang-related attack inside Edmonton Institution against two fellow inmates.

Kody Paul Bear, 27, was handed 10-year sentences for each of two aggravated assault charges from the April 1, 2017, attacks, which left two men with more than 250 stab wounds between them.

His most recent punishment is to run concurrently with his life sentence and is on top of a four-year concurrent sentence he received last year for another prison attack with a weapon.

An agreed statement of facts entered with Edmonton provincial court said Bear and five other inmates lured Sheldon Contois and Craig Soldat, who were affiliated with a gang called Most Organized Brothers, or MOB, to separate cells on the upper level of G unit and attacked them with prisonmade weapons.

Before the attacks took place, members of the group hit a surveillance camera with a meal tray four times and blocked the gun port with a food cart.

Contois was stabbed numerous times in the chest, arms and abdomen by inmate Bradley Dustyhorn before escaping and collapsing in a common area. Contois suffered 53 stab wounds to his head, neck and torso, as well as a punctured lung, and was hospitalized for three days.

Dustyhorn and Bear then entered a nearby cell where Soldat was surrounded by other inmates working with them.

When correctional officers arrived, they could hear Soldat begging for his life as he was repeatedly stabbed by the group while trying to hide under a bed.

Soldat was held hostage for 15 minutes before officers negotiated his release in exchange for two cigarettes.

Before his release, officers saw Bear making handprints on the wall in Soldat’s blood. Five of the men had Soldat’s blood “smeared over their face, body and hands.”

Scratched onto the mirrors in the cell where Soldat was attacked were the words “Kill all MOB” and “666.”

Soldat was stabbed about 200 times, with at least 28 wounds requiring staples or stitches. He suffered two punctured lungs, a fractured rib and spent five days in hospital.

The group “smoked the two cigarettes and snorted some substance believed to be drugs from the desk” during an hour-long standoff with guards.

Bear’s lawyer, Vernon Eichhorn, acknowledged Tuesday his client “was not a passive bystander” in the attacks.

In his ruling, Judge Greg Lepp described the events as “cowardly,” and a deliberate, premeditated group attack.

In 2014, Bear and his cousin, Brittany Bear, were given life sentences after pleading guilty in a double murder case on the Standing Buffalo First Nation, about 50 km northeast of Regina.