Sara Alice Ramalho

The defendant, Keenan George, pleaded guilty to manslaughter after fatally stabbing his brother, Kegan, during an argument over household cleanliness.

The Crown sought a sentence of four to five years in penitentiary, while the defence requested a conditional sentence of two years less a day.

The court found the offence to be serious, driven by anger, and not mitigated by alcohol or drugs.

Considering the principles of denunciation and general deterrence, the court imposed a sentence of 41 months imprisonment, after accounting for pre-sentence custody, deeming a conditional sentence inappropriate given the severity of the crime.

This is a sentencing decision for Jacob Clarke, a first offender, on charges of domestic assault, failure to comply with a release order, and sexual assault causing bodily harm.

The court considered aggravating factors including the domestic context of the first assault, choking, the victim's recent childbirth, the vulnerability of the sexual assault victim due to age, a threat of a gun, and the commission of the sexual assault while on release.

Mitigating factors included the defendant's first offender status and guilty pleas.

The court also considered the defendant's disadvantaged upbringing, history of substance abuse, and mental health issues, noting concerns about malingering.

The sexual assault was deemed the primary driver of the sentence.

The court balanced denunciation, deterrence, and rehabilitation, ultimately imposing a total effective sentence of approximately 52 months (28 months pre-sentence custody credit plus 2 years less a day in a reformatory), along with concurrent sentences for the other charges, three years of probation, a DNA order, a 10-year s. 109 order, a non-communication order, and 20 years of SOIRA registration.

The accused, charged with two counts of second-degree murder, applied for judicial interim release (bail).

The Crown presented exceptionally strong evidence, including DNA, cell phone records placing the accused near the crime scene and a pawnshop where victims' items were sold, and testimony from five witnesses alleging confessions or suspicious inquiries.

The proposed sureties, the accused's mother and a friend, were deemed weak due to lack of positive influence, lack of knowledge about the accused's history, and questionable commitment to surety duties.

The court found that electronic monitoring could not compensate for the weak sureties and dismissed the application on both secondary and tertiary grounds, confirming the accused's continued detention pending trial.