Two sentenced in ‘gruesome death’
Men involved in swarming outside party
Two 22-year-old men were sentenced Thursday for their roles in a fatal swarming outside a 2012 house party in south Edmonton.
Bernard Conrad Hall and Harry Don Gillis were both 19 when they and several friends beat Michael Motiuk, 22. The group had a feud with Motiuk and attacked him after he was thrown out of the party.
Hall pleaded guilty to manslaughter and received a fouryear sentence. Gillis was charged with second-degree murder and pleaded guilty to aggravated assaulted, receiving a 17-month sentence.
After credit for time served in pretrial custody, Hall has 33 months left to serve and Gillis has 2-1/2 months left to serve.
According to an agreed statement of facts, Motiuk was kicked out of the party around 4 a.m. and threw a bird bath at the home’s window. He threatened the party guests and said he would be back with an AK-47 assault rifle.
Guests, including Hall and Gillis, then went outside and chased Motiuk down.
Gillis delivered two punches to Motiuk’s head during an initial assault. Hall was armed with a baton and used it to stop someone trying to break up the initial fight.
Motiuk broke free, but Gillis’s brother stopped him from escaping over a nearby fence.
Gillis then kicked Motiuk once in the head, delivering the blow that knocked him to the ground. The group swarmed him,
Court heard Hall hit Motiuk twice with the baton during the fatal fight. Gillis had no more involvement.
Motiuk was found bleeding on the ground by police officers called to the party just before 5 a.m. He later died in the Grey Nuns Hospital from numerous stab wounds and head trauma.
On Thursday, Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Sterling Sanderman called the beating a cowardly, shameless act by youths settling a score.
“Your actions and the actions of your group culminated in his gruesome death,” he said during Hall’s sentencing.
Gillis told the court he was terribly sorry for what happened.
As his visibly pregnant wife sat in the gallery sobbing, Gillis said he hoped to teach different values to his soonto-be-born son.
“I hope you teach him not to act as his father did and as his uncle did,” Sanderman said.
Gillis’s brother, Kenny Joseph Gillis, was sentenced to three years and 10 months in prison for repeatedly kicking and punching Motiuk in the head.
Christopher Paul Muise, 21, received a six-year sentence for manslaughter and Brenden Polacsek received a nine-month sentence after he pleaded guilty to possession of a weapon for the sword he carried at the party.
Gregory Balanko-Dickson, 22, also pleaded guilty to manslaughter and is awaiting a sentencing hearing scheduled for July.