Cora Laich and Simon Grant. (submitted photo/Cora Laich)

By Derek Cornet

sentencing hearing

Crown seeking 15-year sentence for manslaughter of La Ronge businessman

May 27, 2019 | 3:53 PM

Final arguments concluded Monday in the adult sentencing hearing for a teen who plead guilty to manslaughter in the death of La Ronge restaurateur Simon Grant.

Crown prosecutor Ruth Fafard told Judge Robert Lane she was seeking a 13 to 15-year adult sentence for the attack on Grant, which happened at his Lousiana’s Bar-B-Que restaurant on April 15, 2017. He passed away days later in a Saskatoon hospital due to blunt force trauma. Fafard stated the now 19-year-old teen, who can’t be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, deserves an adult sentence because the length of a youth sentence isn’t long enough to hold him accountable.

“The reason the Crown is seeking a higher-level sentence as in this case is due to the normal range for manslaughter is four to 12 years,” she said. “We feel the violence and severity of the crime in this case takes it outside of the normal range of manslaughter, which is that four to 12 years that our Saskatchewan courts have said.”

Fafard also said an adult sentence was appropriate because of the planning and recruitment of other individuals to participate in the crime. She told the court she doesn’t believe Austin Bird, who received a seven-year sentence for manslaughter, or another youth who received three years for the same crime, would have taken part had it not been for the teen urging their involvement. Fafard called the death of Grant a mature and intelligent act.

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If the offender is sentenced as an adult, Fafard stated the victim’s family will also be able to access information on him such as correctional plans, serious disciplinary offences, date of release and conditions attached, location of residence and more.

The defence in the case, Jessie Buydens, is requesting a three-year youth sentence without credit for the more than two years the teen was held in remand. In that time, Buydens said the teen made progress and participated in programming. She noted an Intensive Rehabilitation Custody Supervision (IRCS) sentence would be the most appropriate way of improving the chances the teen won’t reoffend.

With an IRCS sentence, Buydens stated there will be more funds available for the offender while he’s in and out of custody. The funds will allow the teen access to education, counselling, medication, housing and additional assistance once released into the public.

“Public perception is that a youth sentence is going to be shorter and easier, but a youth sentence might be longer and there are far more intensive rehabilitation,” she said.

The young offender also had the opportunity to speak at the sentencing hearing and he said he wanted Grant’s family and community to know he is sorry for what he did. He added every day he thinks about the crime.

“I’ll accept the sentence the judge gives me whether youth or adult,” he said. “I wish I could take back the last three years. I don’t want the public to be scared of me. That’s why I’m not coming back to La Ronge.”

Judge Lane will render his decision May 30 on whether or not an adult sentence is appropriate in the case.

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derek.cornet@jpbg.ca

Twitter: @saskjourno