No further jail for teen sentenced in random, deadly attack

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This article was published 21/10/2020 (1429 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A 15-year-old Winnipeg boy has been sentenced to no further custody for his part in an unprovoked, fatal attack on a defenceless stranger.

The young offender, identified in court only by his initials J.J.D., was one of two teens arrested in October 2019 after they randomly assaulted 40-year-old Neilson Catcheway on Main Street, near Higgins Avenue.

The boy, along with his co-accused, was originally charged with manslaughter, but pleaded guilty to assault causing bodily harm in exchange for the Crown agreeing not to seek an adult sentence.

“This was an act by an immature (then) 14-year-old, who was not the instigator, he was following the lead of his co-accused,” provincial court Judge Murray Thompson said Thursday, before sentencing the boy to two years of supervised probation.

The Crown had recommended J.J.D. serve the maximum youth sentence of two years in custody.

Thompson said the boy’s crime warranted a nine-month custodial sentence, but ruled no further custody was necessary given he has served the equivalent of just over 10 months while awaiting sentencing.

The two boys had already knocked Catcheway to the ground and kicked him in the head when, in an effort to escape, Catcheway tried to climb up the railing of a train overpass. The then-13-year-old co-accused shoved Catcheway violently, causing him to lose his grip and fall to the road below.

Catcheway hit his head on the road and was then run over by a car. He died in hospital.

The attack was captured on surveillance video.

“The whole event took place very quickly, 18 seconds from the beginning of the attack until the time Mr. Catcheway was rendered unconscious by the fall to Main Street,” Thompson said.

Catcheway’s mother wiped tears from her eyes as Thompson described the circumstances of her son’s death in court.

Thompson said while the co-accused, identified in court as L.T., “was the clear instigator, J.J.D. turned, followed and participated in the attack at L.T.’s request.”

“The accused’s level of involvement, while impulsive, is still significant,” Thompson said. “Mr. Catcheway was killed when trying to escape from this two-on-one attack.”

According to a pre-sentence report provided to court, the boy’s family has a history of residential school involvement, and physical and substance abuse. Three family members are included in the roster of missing and murdered Indigenous women.

Co-accused L.T. awaits sentencing.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca