Indigenous man who fractured victim's skull gets house arrest instead of jail after appeal

B.C.’s top court has set aside a 21-month jail sentence and replaced it with house arrest for an Indigenous offender who punched another man, fracturing his skull and causing a severe brain injury. In a split decision, the Court of Appeal for British Columbia ruled that the judge who sentenced Isaac Harrison Davis to jail for aggravated assault failed to give due consideration to the role of Gladue principles in the case because Davis had obtained a high school diploma, stayed out of trouble with the law, secured employment and aspired to success. Gladue principles were set out in a Supreme Court of Canada decision a quarter century back that dictates sentencing judges must consider the unique circumstances of Indigenous offenders, as well as systemic issues like the impact of residential schools, to address the over-representation of Indigenous people in Canada’s prisons. “The specific question to be addressed in this case is whether Mr. Davis, as an Indigenous offender, should be sentenced differently from the way a non-Indigenous offender would be sentenced for an aggravated assault of this nature. In my view, the answer to that question must be ‘yes,’” Justice Lauri Ann Fenlon wrote in a recent decision out of Vancouver for the majority.

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Fenlon concluded that “significant weight should be placed on the lessened moral culpability of the offender given his circumstances as an Indigenous person.” Justice J. Christopher Grauer concurred with her decision. The court handed Davis, a member of the K’ómoks First Nation, a conditional sentence of two years less a day, to be followed by a year of probation. “Mr. Davis has been incarcerated since November 2024,” Fenlon wrote in her decision dated April 7. “By operation of law, the time served in custody will be counted as part of the 24-month conditional sentence order. The remainder of the first 18 months of the conditional sentence is to be served under house arrest.” Davis was on the phone with his mother on Jan. 13, 2023, when she got in a car accident with Andrew Stone. “The appellant (who was 20 at the time) thought he could hear Mr. Stone yelling at his mother,” said the decision. “Thinking that she was in danger, he rushed to the scene of the accident. On arrival, he spoke to his mother and then confronted Mr. Stone who was hurrying towards his mother, having just come from a store where he had purchased cigarettes for her. Although Ms. Davis tried to stop her son, he walked briskly towards Mr. Stone and punched him in the middle of his forehead, causing him to fall to the ground unconscious.” Stone didn’t have a chance to defend himself. “The punch was a very serious assault. Mr. Stone suffered from a skull fracture and a severe brain injury. Once on the ground, Mr. Stone was bleeding from the head, unconscious, and throwing up. Mr. Stone was transferred immediately to a hospital in Victoria where he had emergency surgery to relieve pressure on his brain. Mr. Stone had two bleeds on the brain, he had multiple surgeries, he was in a coma for three weeks, and was paralyzed for two weeks. It was touch and go for a while as to whether Mr. Stone was going to survive or not.” The assault was “both life-threatening and life-altering” for Stone, said the decision. He “suffered from speech aphasia, memory loss, and cognitive deficiencies, including memory loss. He has had to take speech therapy and now requires the use of a hearing aid.” While the sentencing judge “was alive to the importance of Gladue factors,” Fenlon said, “he found these factors had a ‘lesser impact,’ in part because of Mr. Davis’s ‘success in life’ as demonstrated by the fact that he had graduated from high school, was employed, had no negative peer associations, no addiction issues, and no criminal history.” Davis’s role in his family “was described as that of a ‘protector’ to his mother and female cousin,” said the decision. “Reports filed at sentencing confirmed that his father abused his mother and sexually abused his cousin. Mr. Davis’s upbringing was marked by poverty, domestic violence, and substance misuse by both parents. Mr. Davis felt compelled to shield family members from ‘bad experiences’ and ‘take care of everyone.’” While it isn’t “necessary to establish a direct causal link between systemic and background factors and the offence at issue, Mr. Davis’s circumstances provide the necessary context for understanding his actions on the day of the offence,” Fenlon said. “Mr. Davis perceived Mr. Stone as an aggressor and his mother as in need of protection. That perception, although flawed, caused him to overreact and deliver a single blow to Mr. Stone with devastating consequences.” While the dissenting judge on the panel accepted “that the sentencing judge erred in principle in failing to give due consideration” to Gladue principles, Justice W. Paul Riley concluded “that the 21-month jail sentence imposed by the judge was nonetheless a fit and proper sentence. The sentence is near the low end of the applicable sentencing range, and takes into account the effect of Gladue principles on the offender’s degree of moral culpability, as well as all of the other mitigating circumstances.” A quarter century ago, the Supreme Court of Canada handed down its decision in the case of Jamie Tanis Gladue, a young Cree woman who had killed her common-law husband. Gladue was 19 when she stabbed her husband upon discovering his infidelity, while intoxicated after a party. She pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment, receiving parole after six months. The Supreme Court upheld Gladue’s sentence, but it was a landmark decision. The court stated that sentencing judges must consider the unique circumstances of Indigenous offenders, as well as alternatives to jail time. Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here.