Crown seeks `severe' prison term for killer who brought gun to party
Lives of victim's mother, grandmother are `shattered and broken,' judge hears
Bringing a gun to a house party attended by teens and young adults — and then using it to kill another man — demands “a very severe” prison term, a local sentencing judge was told Monday.
Superior Court Justice Bruce Thomas heard from the victim's relatives about the devastation wrought by a drug dealer who shot a young man on Nov. 4, 2017.
“We are both with our lives shattered and broken,” Tessie Poberezny, the victim's grandmother, said of herself and her daughter, who lost her only child.
The killing “has left me lost and floundering and full of pain, a horrible pain that has yet to leave me,” Poberezny said, reading from a prepared impact statement.
The house party in the 1100 block of Heathfield Court in east Windsor was hosted by a young woman whose parents were away at the time. Jarvas Anthony Poberezny, 23, was killed by a gun-toting Sumar Al-rubayi, 19 at the time, who fired a handgun five times during an outside confrontation.
Originally charged with murder, Al-rubayi, now 22, pleaded guilty to a charge of manslaughter in September on the eve of what assistant Crown attorney Bryan Pillon said would have been a lengthy and “immensely complex trial.”
Witnesses were either less than co-operative with police investigators at the time or gave conflicting statements, and the fired handgun was never recovered, further complicating the prosecution's case. The day after the shooting, Al-rubayi fled Windsor for Calgary, altered his appearance and remained on the lam for more than eight months.
Pillon, in calling for a penitentiary term of between 10 and 12 years, said “this truly reprehensible” crime had an “overwhelming impact” on the community and a “devastating impact” on the family of Poberezny, who also used the last name Scott. He said the party where the shooting took place was “well-populated” by teens and young adults and in a residential neighbourhood.
The pretrial guilty plea and the relative youthfulness of the offender both should be mitigating factors in determining the sentence, defence lawyer Brian Kolman said. He said his client has shown remorse and given up his previous “reckless, short-sighted and destructive lifestyle choices,” and that his young age holds out promise for rehabilitation and a productive future in society.
The defence asked for a prison term of between six and eight years after credit of just over three years is given for nearly two years in pre-sentence custody. Justice Thomas will announce his sentencing decision on Dec. 9.
Pillon said a witness overheard Al-rubayi say after the shooting, “`He deserved it.' Not a traditional expression of remorse.”
Kolman said Al-rubayi explained he felt he was “backed into a corner” that night and that he was being “attacked by knives and bear spray” when he pulled his gun and started firing.
But the defence lawyer conceded that was the killer's version of events and that he had other options, including walking away.
Killing the other young man in reaction to a perceived threat “was not reasonable,” Kolman said. But, he added, a jury in a murder trial “would have had a very hard time determining what happened outside that address on Nov. 4.”
A manslaughter conviction carries a wide range of potential punishment, up to life in prison. Pillon said the use of a firearm means the low end of any sentence starts at four years minimum. The judge said he couldn't ignore the fact Al-rubayi “chose to bring a loaded handgun to a party.”
Al-rubayi was born in Lebanon and came to Canada at the age of three. By about Grade 10, shortly after his family moved to Windsor, with the father out of the picture, “he seemed to lose interest in school” and, his lawyer said, “unfortunately, he was lured by the easy money of the drug trade.”
A pre-sentence report describes the young man's “lack of maturity” and lack of insight into the harm he caused by killing Poberezny, a man he had never met before that night three years ago.
“The decisions made in those few seconds will reverberate for years,” Kolman said.
Charges against two others connected to the case were withdrawn earlier. While awaiting trial for the Poberezny shooting, Al-rubayi was convicted and sentenced on a separate robbery charge.