Family of slain lawyer offers forgiveness to killer ‘There is no more room in my heart for hate,’ victim’s mother tells court at sentencing hearing
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 09/02/2022 (1049 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
In voices sometimes choked with anguish, family members of a young city lawyer who died defending a friend from a senseless assault offered forgiveness to his killer Thursday.
“I release you from the unpayable debt you owe for my brother’s life,” Michael Silicz told 22-year-old Keishawn Mitchell at a sentencing hearing Thursday.
Justin Silicz, 32, died on June 2, 2019, after he was stabbed while walking to his car from an after-hours club with friends.
A jury convicted Mitchell of second-degree murder following a trial last November.
Mitchell admitted he stabbed Silicz, but argued he acted in self-defence and was too intoxicated to form the intent to kill.
Jurors heard testimony Silicz and friends Tony Hajzler and Andrea Bosnjak were walking back to their car on Winnipeg Avenue around 4 a.m., when they saw three males walking in the same direction a short distance ahead of them.
“I release you from the unpayable debt you owe for my brother’s life.”
– Michael Silicz
After one of the males shouted to ask Bosnjak for a cigarette, what started as casual banter escalated into an exchange of insults and threats, Hajzler testified. Mitchell, Hajzler said, walked up to him and as Silicz tried to de-escalate the situation, punched Hajzler in the face.
Hajzler testified Silicz charged at Mitchell and the two men exchanged several punches before Silicz was stabbed and fell to the ground.
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“I don’t know you, but I want to think of you as a complex human being who made a mistake,” Silicz’s sister-in-law told Mitchell in a victim impact statement Thursday. “That may be true and I do forgive you. Still, it is beyond my comprehension how a person could take someone’s life so callously… Your actions demonstrate a lack of the most basic humanity.”
Family and friends provided court with a dozen victim impact statements describing Silicz as a funny, generous and principled young man just starting a promising career in law.
“I was so proud of him and I wish I had told him so,” said father Walter Silicz. “I have never felt such grief and pain and trauma before. I don’t think it will ever go away.”
Nicole Silicz, Justin’s mother, said she forgave Mitchell, “because there is no more room in my heart for hate.”
The minimum sentence for second-degree murder is life in prison with no chance of parole for at least 10 years. Prosecutors are asking Justice Gerald Chartier to raise Mitchell’s period of parole ineligibility to 15 years.
Silicz was a “peacekeeper” who did nothing to encourage the fight he found himself in, said Crown attorney Amy Wood.
“But Keishawn Mitchell didn’t want peace,” and broke Silicz’s nose before pulling out a knife and stabbing him and “casually” walking away, Wood said.
“Justin Silicz could not have done more to avoid this situation,” Wood said. “He was by every measure an innocent victim… The decision to escalate to violence was Mr. Mitchell’s.”
Defence lawyer Mike Cook urged Chartier not to increase Mitchell’s period of parole ineligibility, arguing 15 years would be too “crushing” for someone of Mitchell’s age and limited criminal record.
“That will strip him of hope for the future and he will become far more institutionalized,” Cook said.
Mitchell offered a brief apology to Silicz’s family, saying he “didn’t mean for any of this to happen and hope you can find it in your hearts to forgive me.”
Mitchell said he hopes to use his time in prison “to become a better person.”
Chartier reserved his decision and will sentence Mitchell on Feb.24.
dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca
Dean Pritchard
Courts reporter
Someone once said a journalist is just a reporter in a good suit. Dean Pritchard doesn’t own a good suit. But he knows a good lawsuit.
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