More than a dozen police officers attended a sentencing hearing Friday for a prolific offender who stabbed an innocent man outside a convenience store on New Year’s Day 2018 in Williams Lake.
Blake Bob Johnny, 27, pleaded guilty on Sept. 26 to one count of aggravated assault and one count of attempted robbery.
Dressed in a red prison uniform, Johnny sat in the prisoner’s box, listening quietly throughout the hearing.
Read more: New Year’s Day robbery and stabbing suspect to stand trial this week
Crown Counsel Julie Dufour outlined the details of the case.
She said the victim who was born in March 1955 is a single father.
On Jan. 1 he was on his way home from work when he stopped at the convenience store to buy some milk for his 14-year-old daughter.
Using video surveillance from the store, Dufour described how the victim went inside the store, purchased the milk and came out.
Soon after he climbed back into his truck, Johnny approached the truck from the driver’s side.
He told the victim to give him his keys or he was going to stab him, Dufour said.
When the victim did not surrender the keys, a struggle ensued and the victim fell to the ground.
Johnny then stabbed him on the right side of his lower chest with a four-inch blade knife.
The victim got up from the ground, ran into the store, and threw the keys on the counter.
Video surveillance showed Johnny ran into the store after him, tripped him, causing some store items to crash to the floor, and then turned around and ran out of the store, fleeing the scene.
At the time of the assault, there were two employees in the store and a customer sitting inside having coffee at a table.
The Williams Lake RCMP received a 9-1-1 call at 8:23 p.m. and responded immediately.
Officers attended and drove the victim to Cariboo Memorial Hospital where he was treated for a stab wound to his abdominal muscles, a cut to his arm and a broken rib.
The victim, who is a single parent and sole caregiver for his 14-year-old daughter, did not attend the hearing Friday, but in his impact statement, which he requested be read out loud, he stated he has not felt safe living in Williams Lake since the incident.
He said he spent a week in the hospital after the surgery and had to be away from his daughter the whole time.
“I fear for my daughter and always tell her to be careful. If I had died from this I don’t know where she would have went, probably into a foster home,” he stated.
“After the arrest of the person who did this to me, I felt a lot of relief because the person would not get away with it.”
The victim said he is always looking over his shoulder now and locks his truck when he gets in.
He stated he is afraid of gang members and was in Kamloops when he saw six people who started swearing and shouting at him.
Dufour said the victim was a “hardworking man, simply buying milk who has experienced trauma.”
Dufour said the police put in a “considerable” effort into the investigation and were in court Friday to see how their hard work pans out in serving the community.
“They know the ripple effects of crime in Williams Lake,” she said.
Defence lawyer Bill Herdy outlined some points from the Gladue Report prepared for Johnny, noting his family is from Tl’etinqox First Nation (Anaham).
After the family home burned down they moved into Williams Lake and by the time Johnny was 13 he was into drugs and alcohol and wasn’t attending school.
“He’s wandered loose since that age with, in my observation, very limited structure in his life,” Herdy said.
Herdy said both the late Indi Johnny, who was shot and killed, and Delmer Jesse Frank Jr., whose death has never been solved, were friends of his client.
Their deaths had a negative impact on Johnny and led to depression and further abuse of drugs and alcohol.
Dufour said the justice system and the Crown recognize Johnny’s guilty plea as the first step to rehabilitation.
“His remorse is noted in his Gladue Report,” Dufour added.
Johnny’s record shows he became involved in the justice system in 2008.
“He does not have a very bad criminal record, he has a problematic one in which he cannot abide by conditions and he does engage in property offences,” Dufour said. “He does not have a lot of violence offences on his record.”
Dufour said the Crown was seeking a four-year penitentiary sentence, a firearms ban and DNA sampling.
She recognized the extensive efforts of police, who went to great lengths to solve the crime, including using forensic evidence, tracking and many police resources to match up footprints found in the snow with that of Johnny.
Defence asked for two years and suggested Johnny get counselling.
Supreme Court Judge Marguerite Church said she would be ready to deliver Johnny’s sentence on Tuesday, Jan. 22 at 9 a.m.
Johnny has been in custody since his arrest on Jan. 15, 2018.
Read more: RCMP arrest and charge three prolific offenders during Stampede weekend
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