Assault sentencing adjourned again
Sentencing for a man who attacked and sexually assaulted a woman as she walked to work more than a year ago has been adjourned again, but this time for only a week.
It’s the third time sentencing for Denzel Dre Bird has been delayed since he pleaded guilty in September to one count of aggravated assault and admitted that he attacked the woman with a metal pipe and sexually assaulted her before dragging her into an alley and putting her body into a residential garbage can.
The matter had been scheduled for a sentencing hearing Jan. 5, but it was adjourned to allow more time for Bird to receive a psychiatric assessment. The matter was then scheduled for March 28, but Monday in Lethbridge provincial court sentencing was once again adjourned, this time to April 4.
The Crown and defence had been told the judge was available March 28, but later learned he would not be, prompting yet another rescheduling of the sentencing hearing.
The woman, who can’t be named under a court-ordered publication ban, doesn’t remember the attack Sept. 30, 2016. But reading from an agreed statement of facts last September, Crown prosecutor Erin Olsen said the victim hit her head when she struck the ground, which, along with the blow to the head, fractured her skull and facial bones. The 26-year-old was found by two men who called 911.
The woman also sustained severe traumatic brain injuries and was in a medically induced coma for several weeks. Nearly a month after the attack she was moved from intensive care to a unit that could manage her traumatic brain injury, and over the next month she began improving neurologically. She was finally discharged from hospital in Calgary on Jan. 31, 2017.
Bird was arrested at a westside apartment building five days after the attack, and he told police he did not recall anything about the morning in question and that he had never seen the victim before. He claimed he never hurt her and he was drinking near some schools on the westside at the time of the attack. He eventually admitted his guilt, provided a re-enactment and described to police details of the attack.
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