Jail term for aggravated assault

ALISON LANGLEY

A promising athlete who had been invited to try out for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats will spend the next 12 months behind bars after he assaulted a stranger at a pizzeria, resulting in the victim losing an eye.

“I don’t know if he will believe me or not but I prayed for him every day,” Damonte Wilson said Wednesday in an Superior Court of Justice in St. Catharines.

The 20-year-old was charged with aggravated assault after an Aug. 7, 2015 assault inside a St. Catharines pizzeria left the victim with serious injuries.

The man lost an eye and has ongoing problems with his remaining eye including blurry vision.

In a victim impact statement read into court, the victim wrote he suffers from a lack of balance and has problems concentrating.

“I don’t like being around crowds,” he said. “I don’t like leaving my home for fear of being re-attacked and, if I do go out, I’m back before dark.”

He’s also haunted by dreams that he’s “totally blind.”

Defence counsel V.J. Singh said his client was intimidated by the victim, whom he felt was harassing several young women at the pizzeria.

Singh said the victim had been drinking alcohol for 11 hours before he ended up at the pizzeria.

“If he had been sober, this might not have happened,” he told the judge.

He called the incident “a lifealtering experience” for both men.

Wilson, a St. Catharines resident who did not have a criminal past prior to the assault, had been invited to try out for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. That will no longer happen.

“He’s just a good kid who ended up in a very bad place,” Singh said.

In addition to jail, the defendant was placed on probation for three years.

“This shows how one event on one day, when there’s a lapse in judgment, can change a life in an instant,” the judge said.

“Prior to this incident, this was a promising young man doing well.”