Man who broke senior’s hip in random attack should serve five years: Crown

A man who punched an 83-year-old woman who used a walker, knocking her to the ground and shattering her hip, as she headed to a store to buy milk is a “very dangerous individual” who should be thrown behind bars for five years, the Crown argued on Wednesday.

Justin Aaron Michael Getty, 28, who is mentally ill and addicted to meth, pleaded guilty in January to aggravated assault for the random attack on Victoria Comeau.

“He is a very dangerous individual,” Crown prosecutor Terry McComb told provincial court Judge Michelle Bright.

Comeau had left her apartment, in a 55-plus building at Elgin Avenue and Ellen Street, to walk to Young’s Trading on William Avenue over the noon hour on Feb. 25, 2025.

Getty swore at her as he kicked her hip several times, then picked up her walker and tried to continue the assault with it, but bystanders intervened, said McComb.

Getty ran down the street and later ditched the walker, which contained the victim’s purse and wallet.

If the bystanders hadn’t stopped to help, “we’re not sure what would have happened,” McComb told the judge.

Comeau was hospitalized for three months. She was not eligible for a surgery owing to her frailty and is no longer able to walk independently, even in her own home, said McComb.

Getty, who has a long history of hallucinations, meth-addiction-related mental health issues and was diagnosed with schizophrenia, entered his guilty plea after a months-long, court-ordered assessment of his mental fitness. He’s been frequently hospitalized for his psychosis.

He was ultimately found to understand his actions were wrong and was deemed well enough to stand trial in December.

McComb said Getty must be given a penitentiary sentence of five years, noting his previous convictions for assaults with weapons — committed on his probation officer and a support worker at a youth centre — netted sentences that focused on his rehabilitation.

Defence lawyer Mike Cook argued that Getty should serve two years less a day in Headingley jail, where he’s currently in a unit for inmates who have complex mental-health, cognitive or physical issues.

The judge will issue her decision at a later date.

At the time of the attack, Getty was on bail and going through mental health court for one of the previous assaults, but was booted from the program and was sentenced in regular provincial court last year.

Comeau’s son, Joseph Fourre, spoke out after the attack, to demand beefed-up safety in the area. He also questioned bail legislation.

Days after the assault, Winnipeg Police Service officers, who used surveillance footage to identify Getty, arrested him at the Ross Ellen Housing Complex, near the scene of the attack. The complex has 24/7 supportive housing for people with mental health and addictions issues.

During his interview, Getty told officers spiders were inside him, McComb said.

He also took off his clothes and told them OJ Simpson, the former professional football player acquitted of his wife’s slaying, was trying to eat him alive.

“This individual (had) all the support and resources and assistance that anyone in his situation could want.”

Cook argued Getty should remain in the mental health unit in Headingley, where he’s been taking a powerful anti-psychotic, and then get set up with supports to succeed when he’s released, as opposed to being sent to Stony Mountain prison.

Judge Bright seemed to question Cook’s argument, noting that Getty was living in an intensive supportive housing complex at the time of the attack.

McComb, too, highlighted his living situation at the time.

“This individual (had) all the support and resources and assistance that anyone in his situation could want, and this is how he conducted himself,” McComb said during the hearing.

Getty offered no real explanation or remorse to police last year, or to a probation officer who interviewed him for a pre-sentence report this year, said McComb.

He denied “brutally beating” or assaulting anyone, telling police last year that it’s not a crime to shove someone to the ground who was irritating him, McComb said.

Cook said a worker at the Ross Ellen complex had been assaulted by someone on the street and Getty saw the victim from his window and thought she was somehow involved, which caused him to attack her.

McComb said Getty’s remarks about the assault to the probation officer in February were “quite astounding for how callous they are.”

He said he didn’t care what happened to the victim, and that if she was badly hurt, it was only because she was elderly. He blamed his schizophrenia and meth use for the crime.

McComb said Getty had been receiving treatment for his addictions and mental health for nearly a year by the time he made those comments.

Cook said Getty told him he felt bad about injuring the elderly woman.

Getty’s life was a “story of tragedy,” Cook told the judge.

He was born to a drug-addicted, 14-year-old mother, became a child-welfare ward and was mostly homeless until he got into the Ross Ellen complex. He has a long history of intertwined drug abuse and mental illness.

Getty later apologized to the court, saying he would stay off drugs and never assault anyone again.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca