Man gets life for brutal beating death on LRT car
A drug addict with a low IQ was sentenced to life in prison Friday after killing a man in a brutal and unprovoked attack on an LRT car in 2012.
Jeremy Lyle Newborn was found guilty of second-degree murder in the death of John Hollar, 29, on May 6, 2016. He will be eligible for parole in 15 years.
“A man’s life was ruthlessly taken, leaving loving families and friends who will be impacted for generations,” said Manwar Khan, a witness who had tried to stop the assault, adding: “I feel that justice has been served. No one deserves to have their life taken by another.”
Hollar died in hospital two days after he was attacked within seconds of stepping onto an LRT car at Corona Station on Dec. 28, 2012. Witnesses watched as Newborn repeatedly punched and kicked Hollar before stomping on him as he lay motionless.
In his decision Friday, Justice Brian Burrows rejected the defence’s argument that a mandatory life sentence would be unconstitutional given Newborn’s intellectual disability, diminished cognitive capacity — with an IQ of 59 — and the harmful effect prison would have on his health.
Court heard details of Newborn’s troubled past, including sexual abuse in his childhood and experimenting with alcohol as early as age nine, escalating into a daily habit.
Newborn began abusing drugs when he was 19. Methamphetamine became his drug of choice, using it daily at the height of his addiction.
Psychiatrist Otto Cadsky testified that Newborn’s often violent behaviour “is thought to be largely the result of acute drug intoxication, both in and out of institutions, and the brain damage resulting from years of drug use.”
While being held in custody at the Edmonton Remand Centre, forensic psychiatrist Curtis Woods noted Newborn’s mental state did deteriorate, but linked these mental issues with Newborn’s consumption of large quantities of an illegal type of homemade alcohol called “brew.”
When transferred to Alberta Hospital Edmonton, Cadsky said Newborn’s time there was “marked by his attempts to obtain illicit drugs from other patients, and his episodic and violent behaviour towards others, especially when unsupervised.”
Cadsky believed treatment would be unlikely to change Newborn’s drug seeking or “tendency to threaten others to get what he wants, or assault them.”
In an interview for a Gladue Report, Newborn told the interviewer he didn’t remember the attack, blaming his consumption of large quantities of crystal meth and alcohol.
He said he had been out of jail for less than a week at the time of the assault.
In that report, Newborn said he didn’t have a problem with Hollar when he attacked him.
During sentencing proceedings, Hollar’s family members took to the stand to express their grief in a series of victim impact statements.
His sister, Aleshia Hollar, called Newborn “a monster.”