Prison term for gang beating that put teenage boy in coma

Four years after he was sentenced for his role in a fatal gang beating, Joshua Brendan Bird received a prison term for a similar assault — this one having put a 14-year-old boy in a coma.

Court heard it will be close to a decade before Bird, 29, will be free of jail or parole, having received a sentence of seven years, eight months, to start only once a previously imposed, unrelated sentence runs out.

During a Thursday appearance at Regina Court of Queen’s Bench, Bird pleaded guilty to aggravated assault in relation to a May 11, 2016 gang initiation that left a teenager with a traumatic brain injury.

Crown prosecutor Adam Breker said the boy went with two friends to a Regina house, intending to take a “minute” as a means of joining the Native Syndicate street gang. A minute refers to a timed beating used by gangs either as initiation, punishment or a way to “de-board” an existing member.

Waiting inside the house were several members of the gang, including Bird, then holding a higher rank of captain. Bird directed the minute, timing and supervising while two lower-ranking members punched and kicked the boy for approximately 40 seconds. At that point, Bird stopped them and took over the beating, hitting and kicking the teen, including after he’d been knocked to the floor, unconscious.

Breker said attempts were made to wake the teen but, when he remained unresponsive, he was

Gangs can protect you. They have your back.

placed on a mattress and left at the house. Court heard Bird told the others not to call an ambulance.

It wasn’t until approximately 20 hours later — with the youth still unconscious — that someone called for help.

The injuries proved catastrophic, and medical staff kept the teen in a medically induced coma for two days. Court heard he suffered a tear to his lung, but it was the head injury that proved most significant, with the youth requiring a month’s stay in hospital and extensive rehabilitation to help him with basic functions like speech and movement.

Breker said the youth has since made significant improvements.

The prosecutor said Bird is approaching the point where the Crown will look at launching dangerous offender proceedings, referencing a manslaughter conviction from the 2010 gang-related beating death of 26-year-old Raymond Gardypie. In 2014, Bird received the equivalent of an eightyear sentence, but was deemed to have served his time while on remand.

Hrycan pointed out his client is the product of a tragic background, one common to many Indigenous offenders. Likely suffering from FASD, Bird started life with what Hrycan called a “very bad card” by simply being born a First Nations man in Saskatchewan.

Gangs, Hrycan argued, are not a choice for people like Bird, but a “necessity.”

“Gangs can protect you,” Hrycan said. “They have your back.”

He added much of Bird’s life has, to date, been “thrown away” as a result of the path carved out for him.

Justice Catherine Dawson agreed with Hrycan’s request to make a recommendation to Correctional Service Canada to have Bird assessed for FASD to better address his needs.

But, she added, Bird is also responsible for what she termed a crime of “terrible violence.”