Killer says he sleeps well knowing he protected his mother
Judge issues life sentence after man pleads guilty to second-degree murder
Disregarding attempts by a judge to interrupt him, Christopher Sean Pascal insisted on providing a murdered man’s family with an explanation as to why he stabbed the man to death.
“I’m not going to sit here and f--ing not give them answers,” Pascal told Justice Lana Krogan after she attempted to cut into his comments. “They deserve answers, and that’s the answer I give them is that I went to my mom’s on Mother’s Day. She was crying. She said that he hit her, so I f---ing killed him. That’s it. Case closed. That’s why.”
Turning back to the family of 46-year-old Rodney James Nippi, Pascal continued to speak. “And I apologize for the pain I caused you guys, but at the end of the day I sleep tight knowing that my mom is safe.”
Pascal’s views differ from Nippi’s family, who described their loved one as a man who — according to a victim impact statement from Nippi’s sister Georgina Severight — had his problems but was also a “kind, caring, fun person who was a good artist.”
Wiping at her eyes with a tissue as she addressed Pascal, Severight said Nippi was her only brother and a daily support during her struggles with what she described as a long-term disability.
“He cared how I was doing and it was a total loss for me ...,” she said. “Rodney did not deserve to die. This has caused emotional damage to all our family.”
Her son Kenneth described the trauma of having to identify his uncle’s body, an image he said he is unlikely to forget. Nor is he likely to get past the loss of the man who effectively became his father figure after his own dad passed away, he said.
“Rodney was our family ’s protector,” Kenneth wrote in his victim impact statement. “Because of what you’ve done, I live in fear on a daily basis ... you took the last male figure in my life.”
Court heard police were called to 1474 12th Ave. on the evening of May 14, 2017, after a woman reported her husband had been stabbed. Police arrived to find Nippi still alive but badly wounded. Officers used CPR until an EMS team could arrive, but despite the efforts of emergency workers, Nippi was ultimately pronounced dead at the scene.
Crown prosecutor James Fitzgerald said an autopsy revealed numerous stab and cut wounds to Nippi’s face, neck and arms.
The investigation quickly led to Nippi’s spouse’s son, Pascal. Court heard Pascal turned up at his mother’s door to find her upset and, acting on the belief there had been a history of domestic violence in the home, grabbed a knife from the kitchen.
Court heard he attacked Nippi then left, telling his mother on the way out, “Look, f***, check your old man now.”
At the time, Pascal had been wanted by police on a Canada-wide warrant dating back to December 2016 when he failed to return to his community training residence while serving a long-term supervision order. In 2013, at just 21, Pascal became the then-youngest person in the province to be declared a long-term offender.
In handing down that order, Justice Ted Zarzeczny had commented on Pascal’s violent and tragic past, reminding the young man the only chance he had at changing his ways was by taking advantage of programming.
Zarzeczny stated his hope that Pascal would come to realize “he was not put on this earth to spend the rest of his life in jail.”
On Thursday, Pascal — having pleaded guilty to second-degree murder — was handed a life sentence. His parole eligibility was set at the minimum 10 years.
“You have a choice about how your life might look in the future, and you’ve got some time in custody to give that some thought,” Krogan told Pascal.