Judge urges killer to use her experience in battle against substance abuse
Client: Vanessa Poucette
Charge: Murder
Prosecution: sought murder charges
Defence: manslaughter, killing was spontaneous and not planned
Result: two years in prison, three years probation at healing lodge
A judge has sentenced a Morley woman to two years in a federal prison while urging her to speak out against substance abuse on a First Nation west of Calgary.
Justice David Gates also ordered Vanessa Poucette to serve three years of probation and recommended corrections officials send her to a Saskatchewan healing lodge to serve her custody.
Gates also encouraged Poucette, 49, to follow up on her expressed desire to use her experience, in which she stabbed her husband in the heart during a drunken domestic dispute, to help others.
“Your community needs a strong voice from a woman like you to help them understand the damage being done through alcohol and drug abuse,” Gates said.
“It’s destroying your community.”
The Court of Queen’s Bench judge said Poucette’s story could serve as a strong example of the damage substance abuse can cause.
“Your voice could be a very important voice in turning that around,” Gates said. “I urge you to follow through on your desire to do something positive.”
Gates agreed with defence lawyer Alain Hepner a minimal prison term and probation would be a suitable punishment for Poucette for manslaughter in the Oct. 1, 2016, stabbing death of Brennon Twoyoungmen.
Poucette stabbed Twoyoungmen once in the heart as he attempted to attack her in a home on the Stoney Nakoda First Nation while her cousin Clement Poucette tried to keep them apart.
Crown prosecutor Jim Sawa had argued a sentence in the five- to seven-year range was warranted.
Sawa noted Poucette took a knife from the kitchen and had to reach over her cousin to plunge the weapon into Twoyoungmen’s chest.
But Hepner argued the killing was spontaneous.
“It was a reflexive action, not planned,” he said.
The lawyer noted his client found the knife in the sink.
“It’s not as if she rifled through a drawer looking for a knife.”
Gates said coupled with credit for so-called dead time on remand and for being on house arrest for 29 months, Poucette had already done the equivalent of about 18 to 21 months of custody.
Before the judge pronounced his sentence, Poucette spoke.
“I am truly sorry for the death of Brennon; I never wanted this to happen because our relationship could have been so much better,” she said.
“In spite of the type of relationship we had, I loved him and wanted us to work,” she said. “I can only try to help myself and learn from this terrible tragedy to help others on the reserve with my story.”
At Hepner’s request, Gates recommended Poucette serve her custody at the Okimaw Ohci Healing Lodge near Maple Creek, Sask.
Source: Calgary Sun