Man who slit house guest’s throat pleads guilty to aggravated assault

When Terrance Knapaysweet threatened to kill Eugene Linklater if the latter didn’t leave his apartment, he was told to “do it.”

And Knapaysweet attempted to oblige, slitting his house guest’s throat with a large kitchen knife, court heard Tuesday.

Knapaysweet pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of aggravated assault in connection with his Sept. 26, 2016, attack on Linklater in the offender’s Pineridge home in northeast Calgary.

He had been charged with attempted murder.

Reading from a statement of agreed facts signed by the offender and his lawyer, Shelley Moore, Crown prosecutor Karuna Ramakrishnan detailed the events that left Linklater with blood gushing from his neck.

Ramakrishnan said Linklater had been in a relationship with Beverly Davis for about 10 years, and afterwards she had an onagain, off-again one with Knapaysweet for five years.

On the evening of Sept. 25, 2016, Linklater and Davis were together and ran into Knapaysweet. The three of them ended up drinking together, eventually making their way to the offender’s apartment.

ORDERED GUEST TO LEAVE

At one point Knapaysweet got angry and accused Davis of having sex with Linklater, the prosecutor said.

While Davis was able to placate him, he remained angry and eventually ordered Linklater to leave.

“Davis told the accused that no one was leaving and the accused then said to Linklater that he was going to kill him,” Ramakrishnan said.

Knapaysweet then went to his kitchen and retrieved a large knife.

“The accused said to Linklater, ‘get out of my place or I’m going to kill you,’ ” the prosecutor told Justice Earl Wilson.

“Linklater said, ‘OK, go for it, do it,’ ” she said.

“The accused then immediately grabbed Linklater’s hair from behind, pulling his head back and slit Linklater’s throat with the knife.”

The victim managed to escape the apartment and get help from a neighbour, who called 911.

At Moore’s request, Wilson ordered a psychiatric, psychological and risk assessment on her client.

Sentencing submissions will be made in March.