A Behchoko man who kicked and punched an abruptly woken resident during a violent and “cruel” 2016 home invasion will learn his fate at a sentencing hearing next month.
Twenty-one-year-old Jacob Smith-Lafferty, who scanned court files and swayed in his chair during a facts and sentencing hearing in NWT Supreme Court on July 10, pleaded guilty to one count of breaking and entering and committing an indictable offence.
The plea and subsequent conviction, the court heard, stem from a home invasion that left one man bloodied and beaten in Behchoko.
In the early hours of Feb. 8, 2016, a man sleeping in an apartment was awoken to his door being kicked in.
Two men entered. The victim recognized the intruders, whom he knew casually.
Smith-Lafferty, and the other man, whose charges were stayed by the Crown when Smith-Lafferty changed his plea to guilty, dragged the victim into a washroom before kicking and punching him, damaging a wall in the process.
While Crown prosecutor Jay Potter acknowledged the break and enter was “unsophisticated” and that the victim's injuries were minor – a bloody nose and bruised face – Potter called the crime “very serious and cruel.”
The victim, Potter said, had his right to privacy abruptly and violently taken away at a most vulnerable moment.
The motive for the home invasion, according to Potter, was to find more beer.
While Potter acknowledged no weapons or disguises were used during the home invasion, he called for a two-year sentence followed by three years of probation, citing the “recklessness” of the crime, the right to privacy in the small community and the two-on-one beating at the hands of Smith-Lafferty.
Pointing to inter-generational trauma and substance abuse issues, Steven Fix, Smith-Lafferty's lawyer, called for a much lighter sentence.
Citing Smith-Lafferty's remorse and eagerness to enter addictions treatment through probation, Fix asked for a 12- to 18-month sentence.
With the Crown and the defence “significantly apart” on sentencing, Justice Andrew Mahar said he'd reserve his decision, adjourning sentencing to Aug. 7.
Standing to address Mahar, Smith-Lafferty expressed regret for his actions.
“I just want to take care of my kids,” said Smith-Lafferty.