B.C. court tosses jail sentence for ‘life-altering’ aggravated assault

The Law Courts building, which is home to B.C. Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal, is seen in Vancouver, on Thursday, November 23, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

British Columbia’s highest court has thrown out a jail sentence for a man whose unprovoked attack left his victim with a severe brain injury, after ruling the offender’s Indigenous background reduced his moral culpability.

Isaac Harrison Davis had been sentenced to 21 months in jail by a Courtenay provincial court judge last November after he pleaded guilty to aggravated assault against a man identified in court documents as Mr. Stone in January 2023.

Davis, who was 20 years old at the time of the assault, was on the phone with his mother, who was just involved in a car crash with Stone, when Davis thought he heard Stone yelling at his mother, according to a B.C. Appeal Court summary.

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Thinking his mother was in danger, Davis rushed to the scene of the accident and was at his mother’s side within minutes when he saw Stone hurrying towards them.

Stone had just come from a store where he bought cigarettes for Davis’s mother, in what the court judgment described as “an act of kindness to Mr. Davis’s mother, who was upset by the accident.”

Misunderstanding the situation, Davis approached Stone and, despite his mother’s pleas, punched the man in the middle of the forehead, knocking him out cold.

‘Life-threatening’ injuries

The trial judge described how the assault happened “without warning and without Mr. Stone having the opportunity to protect himself,” leaving him unconscious and vomiting, bleeding from the head with a fractured skull.

Stone was rushed to hospital in Victoria where he underwent multiple emergency surgeries to relieve pressure on his brain from two separate bleeds, the court heard.

He was in a coma for three weeks and remained paralyzed for 14 days after. “It was touch and go for a while as to whether Mr. Stone was going to survive or not,” the trial judge wrote.

“The assault was both life-threatening and life-altering for Mr. Stone,” the judge said, describing how the victim continues to suffer from memory loss, speech impairment, cognitive deficiencies and hearing loss.

“He is now often irritable and short-tempered,” the trial judge continued. “He has two young children and he now finds it is a challenge for him to help raise his children as he finds he has no patience.”

Davis ‘haunted’ by the assault

When Davis realized he had knocked Stone unconscious, he immediately tried to help him, rolling him onto his side while apologizing profusely, the court heard.

He waited for police and paramedics to arrive, and accepted responsibility for causing the injuries, both at the scene and later with his guilty plea.

“In the aftermath of the offence, he was suicidal and has been haunted by the assault,” the B.C. Appeal Court judgement says. “Writers of various reports presented at the sentencing hearing emphasized Mr. Davis’s remorse.”

Despite taking responsibility for his actions, Davis appealed his jail sentence, seeking instead a conditional sentence on the basis the trial judge failed to fully consider the application of the Gladue sentencing principles, which instruct the courts to weigh how the circumstances of Indigenous offenders differ from those of non-Indigenous offenders.

Appeal Court divided

The three-judge Appeal Court was divided on the case, with justices Lauri Ann Fenlon and J. Christopher Grauer ultimately ruling in favour of the appeal. Their decision dispensed with the jail term and instead sentenced Davis to two years less a day of house arrest, followed by one year of probation.

Justice W. Paul Riley, the dissenting voice on the court, argued the jail sentence was justified because a longer prison term would have been imposed if not for the Gladue principles.

“In view of the aggravating features – most notably the unprovoked nature of the assault, the use of significant violence against a defenceless victim, and the serious impacts on the victim – a sentence of actual incarceration is required to give effect to the principle of proportionality, and to denounce the offender’s conduct,” Riley wrote.

But Fenlon, writing the Appeal Court’s decision, found the lower court judge made an error by giving less weight to the Gladue principles because Davis had graduated from high school, was employed, and had no prior criminal history or addiction issues.

Fenlon wrote that Davis, who is a member of the K’omoks First Nation, was raised in poverty and was exposed to domestic violence and substance abuse. He became protective of his mother as a result and achieved successes in life despite his background, the judge concluded.

“Mr. Davis’s moral blameworthiness is markedly diminished by his circumstances as an Indigenous offender,” Fenlon wrote.

Because Davis has been in jail since November, his house arrest sentence was reduced in accordance with the time he has already served in custody. The court ordered Davis to abstain from alcohol and non-prescription drugs, and to have no contact with Stone except through court proceedings.