5-year sentence for assault, confinement

Woman who was beaten feared for life, jumped from moving truck to escape

Referring to a man’s lack of empathy and insight, a Regina judge sentenced him to five years in prison for an assault and confinement of a then-girlfriend that ended only after she threw herself from a moving truck.

“The offender impressed me as someone who is reasonably intelligent and articulate but also as someone who lacked insight and lacked judgment,” Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Richard Elson said this week of 41-year-old Aaron Michael Murphy. “I might also have said that he lacked empathy ... I did not sense any remorse on the offender’s part.”

Last month, Elson found Murphy guilty of assault causing bodily harm, unlawful confinement, evading police and dangerous driving.

After hearing evidence at trial, Elson determined Murphy and his on-again, off-again girlfriend had been using crack cocaine together when, on the morning of May 2, 2016, the two started arguing and eventually traded blows.

A bystander called police, beginning what turned into a lengthy high-speed pursuit on both city streets and rural roads. Speeds reached as high as 210 kilometres per hour.

While Murphy denied assaulting the woman, claiming the fight was consensual, Elson disagreed, referring to photos of the woman’s bruised and swollen face and two bite marks, as well as evidence from an officer who said he witnessed a number of blows.

The woman testified she feared for her life and so tried several times to jump from the moving vehicle. She finally succeeded when the truck, negotiating a turn onto the Trans-Canada Highway from a grid road, was rammed by a police vehicle attempting to end the pursuit and effect a rescue.

While the woman escaped, Murphy — en route to his mother’s Moose Jaw home — kept going despite the vehicle riding on a rim. Police caught up to him where he’d left the road, having slashed his wrists. He was taken into custody and has remained there since.

Because of the remand credit, Murphy was left with just two years, five months remaining on the sentence.

Although the woman did not file a victim-impact statement, Elson said he gained a sense of the “significant” impact on her during her testimony.

He categorized the incident as “domestic violence,” further noting Murphy has a history of two previous assaults on the same woman — adding to the seriousness of the incident. Also serious were the risks Murphy took with the safety of the complainant, the police and the public.

Elson suggested that seriousness seemed to be lost on Murphy.

“I gained a sense that this offender has tremendous difficulty subordinating his own desires and inclinations to the safety and welfare of others,” Elson said.

The judge said even though some might argue the woman’s behaviour was a “contributing factor” to these events, he added “it must categorically be said that (the complainant) did not deserve what happened to her. No one does.”

He said if she contributed anything, it was limited to the “unwise decision to continue a dysfunctional and toxic relationship” with Murphy.