Man admits criminal responsibility, sentenced to six years in prison

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This article was published 29/03/2023 (949 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Bloodvein First Nation man who was allowed to withdraw his guilty plea for beating another man to death with a baseball bat admitted criminal responsibility for the killing Tuesday and was sentenced to six years in prison.

Lucas Duck, 26, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the Sept. 2, 2019, killing of 35-year-old Lorne Green.

Green’s killing was “one of striking brutality,” but Duck’s responsibility for it “must be assessed in light of his tragic personal circumstances,” King’s Bench Justice Shawn Greenberg said.

Duck has served the equivalent of 64 months in custody, reducing his remaining sentence to eight months.

Duck was originally charged with second-degree murder, but the Crown agreed to accept a plea to the reduced charge of manslaughter in recognition of his extreme intoxication and state of mind at the time of the killing.

Duck was set to be sentenced last May at the same time the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the law barring the defence of extreme intoxication for some violent crimes was unconstitutional.

In light of the Supreme Court ruling, Greenberg asked Duck’s lawyers, Karl Gowenlock and Chelsea Suderman, if they wanted to reconsider his guilty plea. They did, and in a subsequent hearing, Duck was allowed to withdraw his guilty plea and reset his case for trial on the original charge of second-degree murder.

“Mr. Duck has now decided he again wants to enter a plea of guilty to manslaughter,” Greenberg said Tuesday. “While I suspect this change of heart is at least in part due to the time he has already spent in custody, his guilty plea is made with the advice of experienced counsel, and I accept it. Nevertheless, I recognize he may have had a defence to the charge and it is mitigating that he wishes to accept responsibility for Mr. Green’s death.”

Victim ‘deceased, but not recognizable’

Green was the longtime partner of Duck’s aunt, with whom Duck was living at the time of the killing.

An agreed statement of facts previously provided to court, said Duck and others at his aunt’s Bloodvein home had drunk up to three or more 26-ounce bottles of vodka when Duck flew into a rage and turned over a refrigerator. He beat his aunt, whom he called by his girlfriend’s name.

The woman and another male resident who intervened fled the house, after which Duck turned his attention to Green, attacking him with a baseball bat.

Police arrived and found the kitchen floor covered in blood. They heard a loud smacking sound “later determined to be the accused striking the already deceased victim with a baseball bat,” said the agreed statement of facts. “It was immediately apparent that the person was deceased, but not recognizable.”

Officers said Duck was covered in blood and had a “delusional look on his face.” Duck identified Green by a different name and claimed he was “poisoning his family and giving them syringes.”

Duck thanked an officer for arriving “before something bad happened.”

“It is obvious that Mr. Duck was intoxicated and not really understanding what he had done,” Greenberg said.

Duck had no memory of attacking Green and could offer no explanation for his rampage, court heard.

Interviewed by police the following day, Duck was “immediately remorseful” and wrote a letter of apology to Green’s family, Greenberg said.

Brain injury changed behaviour: mother

Duck had no prior criminal record or history of violence. A psychiatric report provided to court described Duck’s upbringing as “chaotic and traumatic,” and marked by neglect, early drug and alcohol abuse and frequent violent bullying at the hands of family and community members.

“Mr. Duck would stay at home (from school) out of fear of being abused by others, as a result he was nearly 19 before he learned to read,” Greenberg said.

Four months prior to Green’s slaying, Duck was the victim of a violent group assault that left him with a traumatic brain injury. A subsequent medical examination found he had several healed skull fractures sustained in earlier assaults.

Duck’s mother said his behaviour changed after the most recent attack and a psychiatrist said Duck’s brain injury would have exacerbated the effect of his alcohol consumption at the time of Green’s killing.

“In my view that injury impacted his conduct and reduced his level of moral culpability,” Greenberg said.

Prosecutor Paul Girdletsone, who recommended Duck be sentenced to 10 years in prison, argued his brain injury should not be a factor in imposing a reduced sentence because it had been considered in reducing Duck’s charge from second-degree murder to manslaughter.

“That may be so, but in my view, it is still relevant in assessing moral culpability,” Greenberg said. “There is a difference in a state of intoxication that is self-induced… and a brain injury over which an offender has no control.”

Duck’s sentence includes three years of supervised probation, during which he is to comply with all recommended rehabilitation programs, including time in a residential treatment facility.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca