Man jailed 7 years for fatally stabbing his friend
Curtis Kevin Morin stabbed 29-year-old Bailey Bradley Lonechild in a “split second” during a fight over a weapon believed to be a machete.
Now, he has to live with the agony of knowing he killed someone he considered a friend, his lawyer says.
Morin never denied stabbing Lonechild on Jan. 17, 2017, in the bedroom of an Avenue M South home where the Crown said “basically everyone in the residence” was consuming drugs and alcohol. The issues in court were the circumstances of the stabbing and whether Morin was “legally culpable,” defence lawyer Leslie Sullivan said during Morin’s sentencing hearing in Saskatoon Court of Queen’s Bench.
Witnesses provided slightly different accounts of the same event, according to an agreed statement of facts. The common thread in their stories was that Lonechild and Morin got into an argument over a machete Lonechild had brought to the house. It escalated into a physical fight and ended when Morin quickly stabbed Lonechild, puncturing his heart.
Eight days later, Morin was arrested for pointing a sawed-off .22-calibre rifle at a police car that was trying to pull him over. Officers realized a warrant had been issued for his arrest in connection with Lonechild’s death. He was later charged with second-degree murder.
On Monday, Morin, 26, pleaded guilty to the lesser offence of manslaughter and was sentenced to seven years — a joint-submission proposed by the Crown and defence. He received a three-and-a-half year sentence for pointing the loaded, prohibited firearm at police.
Prosecutor Bryce Pashovitz said the fact Morin wasn’t the aggressor, that Lonechild had the machete in the first place and that a fight ensued means a jury might have acquitted Morin of murder. Manslaughter fit the circumstances best, Pashovitz told court.
He noted this wasn’t Morin’s first violent offence. Court heard he had 18 prior convictions on his criminal record and was only out of jail for six months before he killed Lonechild.