Crown requests prison term for assault

Attack was so severe that victim was put into coma, left with lasting brain injury

A Regina judge will consider the proper sentence for a young man who participated in an assault so severe it put a man in a coma and left him unable to fully care for himself prior to his death.

While the Crown is not alleging the victim's death was the direct result of the assault, prosecutor Greg Chovin said the incident in and of itself was a “horrific tragedy ... with the complete lack of any reason.”

“It seemingly comes out of the blue,” Chovin said.

What was clear about the assault was that the young men encountered by the then-43-year-old victim were heavily intoxicated.

One of them — Joel Allary — has already received a four-year sentence less remand credit for his role. It's now up to Queen's Bench Justice Janet Mcmurtry to decide whether 21-year-old Brandon Cole Bitternose will receive the same four-year term as requested by the Crown, or if she will accede to a defence request for something less.

Both men were originally charged with attempted murder but instead pleaded guilty to aggravated assault.

Unlike Allary, Bitternose has no previous criminal record.

Court heard Bitternose suffers from addictions, something that fuelled the incident before the court.

Chovin said the victim had just visited an ATM on Wallace Street on the night of Aug. 12, 2017. Three males, including the two men charged, passed near him and for unknown reasons, the pair attacked him.

Court heard the third man with the group actually chased off his companions but that Bitternose returned to continue the assault. Witnesses to the attack described seeing the assailants deliver multiple punches, kicks and stomps to the victim with many blows directed at his head.

The third man with the group ultimately stabbed both of his companions, then remained at the victim's side until police arrived.

The victim, Allary and Bitternose were all taken to hospital. The victim remained there until November 2017, comatose for part of his stay. Chovin said the man sustained a severe, lasting brain injury that left him requiring care until he passed away in December 2018.

Court heard a victim impact statement from the mother of the man's son, detailing the terrible impact the crime and its effects had on her former partner, her son and herself.

“There has not been an area of our life that was not changed ...,” the woman wrote. “We will never be the same.”

Defence lawyer Mervyn Shaw told the court his client witnessed and endured physical abuse as a child and understands the harm he caused to the victim and his family.

Shaw said his client has sought to better himself since the assault, quitting drinking, taking steps to deal with his personal issues and participating in self-improvement workshops. While Bitternose reportedly doesn't remember the incident, Shaw said he is nonetheless troubled by what he did.

“We can't undo what is done,” Shaw said. “My client is ready to make amends ... I don't think we'll see him back before the court.”

The matter was set over to Feb. 11 to hear a victim impact statement from the victim's brother and for Mcmurtry to give her decision on sentence.