Anand-Ford acquitted of 2nd-degree murder, guilty of lesser charge

A man accused in the stabbing death of 24-year-old Dustin Hewer has been found not guilty of second-degree murder. Instead the jury found him guilty of the lesser offence of manslaughter.

Aaron Anand-Ford stabbed Hewer 13 times on Nov. 5, 2016, after the victim charged at his friend Jacob Porfoun with a baseball bat.

The jury reached its verdict Thursday evening.

Counsel for Anand-Ford had argued he was acting in defence of his friend and didn’t intend to kill Hewer, but did so in the heat of passion after being provoked.

“Sometimes a death is legally justifiable,” said defence lawyer Derek Jugnauth in his closing argument Wednesday. “That makes it no less tragic.”

The jury saw security footage from the doorbell of the home where Hewer met his fate, which Jugnauth argued showed Anand-Ford attempting to defuse the situation by inserting himself between Hewer and Porfoun.

“The video speaks for itself,” he said. “When Aaron steps out of the house, he does it to save his friend who’s on the wrong end of a baseball bat.”

The Crown argued that if Anand-Ford indeed wanted to defuse the situation, he could have called the police or left the residence when Hewer showed up with a bat.

Instead, he left Porfoun outside to face Hewer, while Anand-Ford went inside the house to grab the knife he used to stab the victim.

The deadly confrontation was spurred by an earlier altercation at Who’s on Third, the Redcliff bar where Hewer’s girlfriend worked as a server.

She testified Anand-Ford, who was heavily intoxicated, became belligerent when she asked him to leave, threatening to stab her.

Anand-Ford, who also took the stand, denied threatening her and said he left the bar on good terms with the victim, who was also present.

But he also testified he returned to the bar before going to the residence to have a fist fight with Hewer, which the Crown said contradicts his assertion that he left Who’s on Third on good terms with him.

Porfoun pled guilty to manslaughter in June 2017 in relation to the incident, for which he received a prison sentence of six-and-a-half years.

Sentencing for Anand-Ford is scheduled for March 15.