‘I was listening to my son dying’
Father gives emotional testimony at sentencing hearing for man who killed Tyler Noble
VICTORIA — When Ken Noble answered the phone in the middle of the night on Nov. 26, 2011, his greatest fears were realized.
“I could hear a voice talking. Someone saying, ‘breathe buddy’ and ‘roll him on his side.’ And then it sounded like someone gurgling and grunting. I did not know at the time I was listening to my son dying. Those noises are forever in my head. They haunt me,” Noble said Friday at the sentencing hearing for the man responsible for his son’s death.
In November, Brandon Huth was convicted of manslaughter in the death of 20-year-old Tyler Noble.
During the judge-alone trial, Huth, 26, admitted striking the blow that led to Noble’s death.
The two men were involved in a confrontation near the McDonald’s restaurant at View and Douglas streets. When Noble was hit, he fell backward, striking his head on the sidewalk. He died in hospital from head injuries a few hours later.
Before a standing-room-only courtroom in Victoria, Ken Noble remembered his only son and the devastating effect his death has had on his family.
People cried, blew their noses and sniffed as Noble described how Tyler’s death has robbed him of his security, rest and peace.
“I have trouble finding joy in the simplest pleasures in life ... Sometimes the feeling of despair becomes so overwhelming, so oppressive that it literally takes my breath away.”
Noble said he never knows what will trigger a memory of his son. “And while those memories of Tyler are so sweet, with them comes the realization that he is gone, and each time that realization hits my heart, it is devastating.”
Noble recalled seeing Tyler on a stretcher at the hospital, his face covered with blood. He and his wife, Laurie, were crying, telling their son how much they loved him. Laurie asked for a cloth to clean Tyler’s face, kissing him while she was doing it.
“It was unbearable,” said Noble, his voice shaking with emotion.
Tyler was a generous young man with a heart as big as the world, who loved life and loved living, his father said. He did not care about ethnic background, skin colour or choice of lifestyle, just that people were kind, he added.
More than 1,000 people attended his memorial service, Noble said.
“My family life that I loved, cherished and worked so hard for is now forever gone,” Noble said, adding that his son did not deserve to be so cruelly taken.
“I do not deserve to have to live the rest of my life with this pain and without my child.”