Man pleads guilty to stabbing fellow bus rider for no reason

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This article was published 10/03/2022 (1316 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Raymond Hill and Justin James boarded a city transit bus as strangers May 24, 2020.

Minutes later, Hill collapsed outside the bus, and died from a stab wound to his abdomen as police took James into custody.

James, 48, pleaded guilty to manslaughter Thursday.

“This really was such an unprovoked, avoidable attack that took Raymond Hill’s life,” Crown attorney Colin Soul told provincial court Judge Murray Thompson, recommending James be sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Court was told Hill, 57, and James got on the bus outside Portage Place mall around 3 p.m. James, who was drinking from a king can of beer, sat down at the front of the bus and Hill took a seat near the back.

Bus security video showed James at the rear exit as the bus approached the University of Winnipeg when “for unknown reasons,” James called Hill an “asshole,” pulled out a knife and stabbed Hill in the left side of his abdomen, Soul said.

“Hill can be seen raising his shirt and looking at his stomach while still on the bus,” Soul said. Hill stumbled out of the bus and called out to a police cruiser that happened to be there. Then he fell to the ground.

The attack was witnessed by several passengers on the bus, including a man and his two grandchildren.

James was “belligerent and confrontational” with police, but complied with their arrest demands when officers pulled out their Tasers, Soul said.

Defence lawyer Crystal Antila recommended Thompson sentence James to just two more years in jail and three years of supervised probation, arguing his behaviour was exacerbated by a traumatic brain injury he suffered after being hit by a car two years ago.

“He has been dealing with the effects of that brain injury ever since,” Antila said.

Antila said James has made repeated trips to hospital with debilitating headaches only to see his complaints dismissed.

“He wanted actual medical help, not just a handful of (Tylenol 3s),” she said.

The morning Hill was killed, James was at the hospital again, where he was provided a prescription for 20 Tylenol 3 tablets.

“He took about 10 of them and started drinking,” Antila said.

James, who Antila said suffers from paranoia as a result of his head injury, believed Hall was somebody from his home reserve.

A pre-sentence report prepared for court says James has a family and personal history marked by residential school involvement, substance abuse and violence.

“It’s very distressing to Mr. James that he has caused this loss to this family… but we cannot neglect the circumstances (he) was in at the time,” Antila said.

But for James’ high level of intoxication, he would have been charged with murder, Soul said.

Hill’s former partner and daughter described him as a fun-loving jokester who always put his family first.

“He didn’t have much, but what he did he would share,” said Nana Fagnan, who had two children with Hill and remained close. “Your life was taken too soon, your life was robbed. My Raymond, the pain is real.”

Daughter Cree-Anne Hill said Hill would panhandle to help her and her two children get by.

“He was a vey humble man,” she said. “He was the best grandpa.”

James remains in custody. He will be sentenced at a later date.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca