Judge delivers life sentence in ‘senseless tragedy’ fatal stabbing

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This article was published 01/03/2023 (983 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Fighting for his life, 60-year-old Owen Pruden wrested a garden-shear blade from an attacker only to have a stranger jump in and fatally stab him with it, a court has heard.

Jeremiah Christian Zglobicki, 20, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for the August 2021 killing and was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison with no chance of parole for 10 years, the minimum period allowed under the Criminal Code.

Justin Everett McKay, 32, who is accused of initiating the attack on Pruden, has been charged with manslaughter and remains before the court.

Zglobicki, who court heard had been using methamphetamine around the time of the killing, did not know McKay or Pruden and could offer no explanation why he intervened and attacked Pruden.

“Mr. Zglobicki’s actions in this case are difficult to understand,” said Manitoba Court of King’s Bench Justice Shawn Greenberg at a sentencing hearing Tuesday. “It goes without saying this was a senseless tragedy.”

Court heard Pruden, a resident at the Salvation Army Booth Centre on Henry Avenue, “got into an altercation” with McKay outside the building, during which McKay pulled the weapon from a backpack.

Pruden had managed to disarm McKay when Zglobicki, who had been watching the fight, “for some reason intervened,” Greenberg said.

Zglobicki grabbed the blade from Pruden and stabbed him three times in the chest before running away.

Pruden was taken to hospital in critical condition and died.

Greenberg agreed to a joint Crown and defence recommendation that Zglobicki be allowed to apply for parole after the minimum 10-year period, citing an upbringing of abuse, neglect and disadvantage that left him with little avenue for success.

“It would trivialize Mr. Zglobicki’s challenging upbringing to simply say he had a difficult upbringing,” Greenberg said. “It would be remarkable if he were left unscathed by it…. One hopes he will be offered support and programming in jail that will address the issues that brought him to court today.”

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca