Man asked nephew to punch him as punishment, but blow was fatal By: Dean Pritchard Posted: 7:00 PM CDT Wednesday, Mar. 22, 2023

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This article was published 22/03/2023 (941 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Winnipeg man punched his uncle once in the head at the older man’s urging, after he was caught apparently sexually assaulting his nephew’s girlfriend.

What was supposed to be a punishing blow turned out to be a fatal one. The 41-year-old uncle died and his nephew, who was 23 at the time, was slapped with a charge of manslaughter.

On Wednesday, a judge spared the 25-year-old man a trip to Headingley Correctional Centre and sentenced him to 18 months of house arrest.

The offender’s “violence toward the deceased victim was agreed to by the victim and resulted from significant provocation,” said provincial court Judge Lawrence Allen.

The offender’s “violence toward the deceased victim was agreed to by the victim and resulted from significant provocation,” said provincial court Judge Lawrence Allen.

The Free Press is not naming the offender or his uncle to protect the identity of the girlfriend, who is the subject of a court-ordered publication ban.

According to an agreed statement of facts provided to court, the nephew and his girlfriend were living at his uncle’s Winnipeg home in August 2021 when, following an evening of “drinking and socializing,” the girlfriend went to a basement bedroom to sleep.

Sometime later, the nephew went to the bedroom and saw his uncle on top of his girlfriend and “inferred that (she) was being sexually assaulted,” said the agreed statement of facts.

The nephew “was angry but calm. He told the victim to get off (the girlfriend), to which the uncle replied: ‘Can I just have five more minutes?’ The nephew “responded that they needed to talk ‘right now.’”

The two men went upstairs where the uncle “apologized profusely” and claimed the woman “was OK” with what he had been doing and that he did not know the nephew and woman were in a relationship.

The woman later told the nephew she had not consented to the man having sex with her.

The uncle, “concerned that this incident not damage his relationship” with his nephew, “briefly discussed how to resolve the situation and jointly determined to resolve it by having (the nephew) punch the victim,” said the agreed statement of facts.

The uncle, “concerned that this incident not damage his relationship” with his nephew, “briefly discussed how to resolve the situation and jointly determined to resolve it by having (the nephew) punch the victim,” said the agreed statement of facts.

The nephew “originally sought three punches,” but agreed to one at his uncle’s urging.

“While it is easy to question the thinking behind this agreement, it is also easy to understand that finding his uncle apparently sexually assaulting his girlfriend would be substantial provocation,” Allen said.

The nephew punched his uncle once, causing him to stumble backwards and fall to the floor. As the nephew walked away, the uncle “again commented that he did not want any bad blood between them,” said the agreed statement of facts.

The nephew, who was in tears, called his stepfather to pick up him and his girlfriend. The stepfather arrived and checked on the victim and found him breathing with no visible injuries and assumed he had passed out. Later, the uncle’s son checked on his father, found him unresponsive and called 911.

The victim’s son later found a text message from the nephew saying: “knocked out your dad I’m moving out… PS your dad’s a wimp, only took 1 punch.”

The nephew was arrested later that day and questioned at length by police. He was released without being charged.

An autopsy two days later determined the victim died as the result of blunt force trauma to the head. The nephew turned himself in a day later and he was charged with manslaughter.

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A dozen reference letters provided to court described the offender as a kind-hearted, intelligent and “down to earth person,” who despite an upbringing marked by periods of disadvantage, poverty, and family history of drug and alcohol abuse, graduated from high school with honours and was maintaining a full-time job.

“The reference letters establish in my mind that this offender has significant family and community supports,” Allen said. “They also provide compelling evidence that (he) is a hard-working, normally gentle person who is extremely valued by those he interacts with.”

The Crown recommended the man, be sentenced to two years less a day in jail. Defence lawyer Gerri Wiebe urged Allen to consider a suspended sentence akin to probation.

Allen said a suspended sentence was inappropriate given the degree of intentional violence involved.

The offender’s “conduct in punching his apparently intoxicated uncle as a result of an agreement must be significantly denounced,” Allen said.

“Behaviour of this nature must be deterred. There cannot, under any circumstances, be a free pass for the administration of violence, whether it is agreed to or not.”

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca

Dean Pritchard
Courts reporter

Dean Pritchard is courts reporter for the Free Press. He has covered the justice system since 1999, working for the Brandon Sun and Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in 2019. Read more about Dean.

Every piece of reporting Dean produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.