Defendant apologizes to victim’s family, pledges to change ‘drug addict lifestyle’
Mother says she can’t forgive son’s killer
Adrian Johnson’s mother can only begin to forgive her son’s killer once he completes his sentence, telling court Damien Dubien will get the “second chance at life” her own son was denied.
Dubien, 34, was charged with second-degree murder in November 2017 after Johnson, 45, was stabbed to death during a heated argument in a Lowertown crack den.
He pleaded guilty on May 28 to manslaughter after one day of witness testimony.
Dubien faced Johnson’s mother in court Monday, apologizing to the family of the man he killed, and apologizing to his own family while pledging to change his “dysfunctional drug addict lifestyle.”
“I’m truly sorry,” he said, telling court he has remained sober for six months. “There is nothing right or fair in this whole terrible situation.”
Nessa Glasgow, Johnson’s mother, said, “I cannot bring myself to forgive the defendant. I do hope he will take this sentence as a second chance at life and make the necessary changes ... so when he is integrated back into society I may be able to forgive him.
“I will forever mourn the loss of my beloved son.”
Melanie Moore, Dubien’s mother, appealed directly to Johnson’s mother during her own testimony at Monday’s sentencing hearing.
“Like you I know all too well what it is like to lose a son to drugs and the street,” she said. “I have no illusions that what I’m going through pales in comparison to the grief the Johnson family is going through.”
She asked Justice Trevor Brown to consider her request to have Dubien serve his penitentiary sentence at the Drumheller Institution in Alberta, closer to his family.
“You are a kind soul that got lost,” she told her son as he sat in the prisoner’s box. “I will never be at peace for the fact you took a man’s life.”
She offered her “deepest condolences” to Johnson’s family, seated across the courtroom aisle.
Glasgow said Nov. 18, 2017, the day detectives arrived with word of her son’s death, remains “the worst day of my life.”
She began her victim impact statement by reading the poem God’s Lent Child, which she said was also recited at Johnson’s funeral.
“Adrian as a child had the same hopes and dreams as all my other children,” Glasgow said, calling her son an “ambitious, generous, hardworking person, fun-loving and caring … he loved his family and was very protective.
“Unfortunately like many others, my son found himself struggling with mental health and addiction. His life was not perfect, but he was loved by many around him.”
According to Dubien’s plea, he stabbed Johnson during a “heated argument.” Johnson was armed with a liquor bottle in each hand, but Dubien admitted “the nature and proportionality of (his) response to the perceived threat of force posed by Mr. Johnson was disproportionate in the circumstances.”
Crown prosecutor Matthew Humphreys called for a sentence of six years, arguing Dubien stabbed Johnson with the knife he brought with enough force to inflict an acute fracture of Johnson’s rib. Dubien “could have walked away ” after Johnson apparently insulted him by calling him a “goof.”
He made no attempt to help Johnson after the stabbing and fled while Johnson staggered across the street for help, where he col- lapsed outside the Shepherds of Good Hope.
Dubien, described in court as “low-level street dealer of crack cocaine who was feeding his own habit,” has a criminal record with “significant” involvement in the drug subculture, Humphreys said, listing Dubien’s multiple drug trafficking convictions.
He was on probation at the time of the killing, said Humphreys, who asked for lifetime weapons ban and a DNA sample for a national databank.
Dubien’s defence lawyer, Mark Ertel, told court Dubien expressed “significant remorse” and “a commitment to rehabilitation and sobriety.”
“Those words are not hollow words,” Ertel said. He argued for a sentence of three to four years, with credit for the 210 days Dubien has so far spent in pretrial custody.
He said the request to have Dubien serve his time in Drumheller would place him closer to family support, and would also facilitate access to psychiatric and drug treatment.
“I reached my lowest point,” Dubien said. “My life will never be the same. I see things (now) a lot clearer … but I still can’t change the past. But admitting and acceptance has given me the power to change my future.”
Justice Brown will consider submissions before delivering a sentence in a hearing scheduled later this month.