WINNIPEG - Tyson Clark admits he "went too far" when he brutally beat a man who called Clark and his girlfriend the N-word.
Clark said he was hosting a party at his Winnipeg home on Oct. 20, 2007, when the victim, an acquaintance, "set me off."
"Why would you come to my party and say those things to me?" Clark told Judge Mary Curtis at a sentencing hearing Wednesday.
"It was like a slap in the face."
Clark, 22, pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated assault and was sentenced to two years in custody.
"It's an assaultive word," said defence lawyer Darren Sawchuk of the racial slur. "When you use it, we appreciate it is a 'calling out' word. It's not surprising there is an emotional reaction."
'Square in the face'
Court heard a witness told police he saw Clark pull the victim out of his car and punch him several times in the head, knocking him to the ground.
The man said he pulled Clark off the victim and told him, "He's down, he doesn't need anymore."
The man said he and Clark were walking away when Clark shoved him aside, ran back to the victim, who was struggling to get to his feet, and "kicked him square in the face."
"I saw his face snap back and he landed on his back," the witness said. "All I could hear was gurgling sounds coming from (the victim). Tyson stomped on his head two or three times. It sounded brutal."
The victim suffered a broken jaw, a broken nose and eye damage.
Crown attorney Melinda Murray said the racial slurs did not justify the "gratuitous violence" of Clark's attack.
"What the accused did in response to that is well and beyond what is appropriate," Murray said. "You don't deal with the issue by stomping on their head."
No comments:
Post a Comment