Man sentenced to 12 years for knife attack

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This article was published 02/06/2025 (473 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A 20-year-old Manitoba man has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for a relentless, jealousy-fuelled knife attack on a man he found in the company of his ex-girlfriend.

Jordan Catagas pleaded guilty to one count of attempted murder for the June 8, 2023, attack at the 18-year-old victim’s home in Grandview, Man.

Attempted murder is routinely recognized as one of the most difficult crimes to prove because it requires that an intention to kill, not merely wound, be established beyond a reasonable doubt.

“There can be no doubt that this was (Catagas’s) intention as he screamed, ‘I will kill you’ from outside the (victim’s) residence while kicking at the door and smashing the windows, leaving only when police sirens could be heard closing in on his location,” provincial court Judge Geoff Bayly said in a written ruling released Thursday.

“It is pure luck that (the victim) survived, recovered and has taken steps to move forward with his life,” Bayly said.

Court heard the victim and a 17-year-old friend — Catagas’s ex-girlfriend — had been visiting on the outdoor deck of his home when Catagas walked by and saw them together.

Catagas, who had been drinking, returned to the home 40 minutes later armed with a knife and banged on the door. When the victim opened the door, Catagas pushed past him and accused his ex-girlfriend of cheating on him.

Catagas demanded the woman leave with him. When she refused, the victim tried to defuse the situation and stepped between them, with his back to Catagas. He pulled out his knife and started stabbing the victim in the head.

The victim, thinking he had been punched, started wrestling with Catagas; it was only when he started bleeding heavily that he saw Catagas was holding a knife.

The victim pleaded with Catagas to stop as they continued to fight and Catagas told the man he “wished that he would die.”

Catagas stabbed the man in the temple and neck before the woman managed to pull him off the victim and push him out of the home.

Catagas, who had dropped the knife inside the house, rearmed himself with a rake handle and smashed on the house windows as he repeated his threats to kill the victim and young woman.

The victim’s frantic pleas for help were captured on a 911 call, a recording of which was provided to court.

“I’m bleeding bad. He wants to kill me,” the victim told a 911 operator, describing himself as “drenched in blood.”

Catagas could be heard kicking at the back door as the victim told the operator: “There is nowhere safe I can go.”

Catagas continued to scream threats at the victim as he smashed one window and then another before police arrived and saw him running from the home covered in blood.

The victim was taken to hospital with six penetrating stab wounds to his head and neck. He lost a litre and a half of blood.

“To the court, through an agreed statement of facts, the offender admitted that throughout this altercation with (the victim), he intended to murder him,” Bayly said.

A pre-sentence report prepared for court said Catagas expressed remorse for attacking the victim, whom he considered a friend, and blamed his actions on alcohol and jealousy.

“Whatever sentence I receive is fair,” he told a probation officer. “I know I did a bad thing.”

Defence lawyer Barry Sinder recommended Bayly sentence Catagas to six years, pointing to his remorse, the absence of a prior criminal record, strong family support and his rehabilitative efforts while in remand custody, including attending sweat lodges and educational programming.

Crown attorney Sam Levkov recommended a 12-year sentence, arguing Catagas should not be considered less morally culpable for the attack because the victim survived.

Bayly “commend(ed)” Catagas for his rehabilitative efforts, but said a 12-year sentence was necessary to satisfy the need for denunciation and deterrence.

“The catalyst for this offence relates to the offender’s jealousy and desire to control his ex-domestic partner,” Bayly said. “This mindset, used to justify such extreme violence, enhances the seriousness of the offence.”

Bayly credited Catagas for time served, reducing his remaining sentence to nine years.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca