Man handed 61/2-year prison sentence for violent home invasion

Finding no sign of regret or desire to change his ways, a Regina judge handed down a prison term to a man who took part in a violent home invasion in 2015.

“I am hard pressed to discern any sense of remorse or any desire to pursue a rehabilitative path,” Queen’s Bench Justice Lian Schwann said of Darren James Tawiyaka on Friday. “Mr. Tawiyaka sees no merit in substance abuse programming and will only take it if directed to do so by court order. He refused to disassociate himself from his pro-criminal peers, notably the Native Syndicate, in spite of the urging of his domestic partner and his family. In fact, Mr. Tawiyaka has gone so far as to downplay the criminal objectives of the NS gang or at least the criminal linkages on the occasions he has associated with NS peers.”

Court heard the NS was central to the Nov. 6, 2015, home invasion in which a man was badly beaten in front of his spouse and 10-year-old daughter.

The complainant’s wife told the court the incident was sparked when her husband — by then a former member of the gang — flashed a gang sign on a social media site.

Tawiyaka, Forrest Duane Pelletier and Sydney Christy Starr showed up at the couple’s house and Starr held the man’s daughter while he was beaten. The man’s wife, who tried to intervene at one point to help her husband, was pushed out of the way.

The man had broken ribs, among other injuries, and court heard the little girl was left traumatized by what she was forced to watch.

Both Pelletier — a high-ranking member of the NS — and Starr were sentenced to seven years less remand credit.

That left 32-year-old Tawiyaka, who had been convicted after trial of break, enter and commit aggravated assault and two counts of break, enter and commit assault.

Defence lawyer Tyne Hagey argued for a sentence of five years less remand credit and Crown prosecutor Leona Andrews urged the court to impose double that.

Hagey pointed to her client’s troubled past, marred as it was by family breakdown, exposure to domestic violence and alcoholism. Despite that, he is said to have a supportive family and is in a relationship with a woman who court heard has been trying — so far unsuccessfully

I am hard pressed to discern any sense of remorse or any desire to pursue a rehabilitative path.

— to steer him away from pro-criminal behaviour.

Meanwhile, the Crown’s request for a stiffer sentence was centred on its position Tawiyaka had a troubling lack of motive for the attack and yet, at points during the incident, laid hands on all three complainants.

Schwann determined a sentence of 6½ years less remand credit was appropriate, given his criminal record is significantly shorter than Pelletier’s and “it was Mr. Pelletier and Ms. Starr who appeared to be the driving force behind the invasion and attack.”

Tawiyaka was credited with close to 1½ years of pre-sentence custody, leaving him with about five years to serve.