A Winnipeg man who assaulted a Vancouver Crown prosecutor while she was walking to work earlier this year was sentenced to one year in jail for the attack and two others the same day – and thereafter will be forced to leave the province.
Court heard Kenyon Thomas Lavallee, 27, had only been in Vancouver for a few weeks prior to the assaults. He has been ordered, after his jail sentence is finished, to return to his home province of Manitoba.
Lavallee, who was convicted on July 22 of assault causing bodily harm against the prosecutor and the assault of another woman, was handed 305 days in jail for what B.C. Provincial Court Judge Daniel Loucks said appeared to be a “random act of violence.”
Lavallee received another 60 days in jail after he pleaded guilty to assaulting a peace officer.
Loucks detailed how Lavallee was running down East Cordova Street near the Vancouver provincial courthouse on Feb. 2, when he punched the prosecutor in the face and then struck another woman nearby.
After he was arrested, Lavallee punched a jail guard when he was denied a blanket.
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Defence counsel Troy Anderson told the court that at the time of the offences, his client was experiencing untreated mental illness and was self-medicating through substance use, which often leads to street disorder.
Loucks noted the Downtown Eastside, where Lavallee was staying, was “perhaps the worst place for someone suffering from mental illness to find themselves untreated.”
Lavallee has been receiving medication to treat his schizophrenia since he’s been in custody, and according to his lawyer, he has no recollection of Feb. 2.
“Mr. Lavallee, having seen what he has done, feels terrible,” Anderson told the court. “He can offer no explanation.”
While on medication, Lavallee has become a completely different person and wants to get out of the Downtown Eastside, Anderson said.
“He’s extremely remorseful for what he did,” Anderson told Global News outside the courthouse. “It’s difficult to really express remorse for something you don’t really remember but he heard very compelling evidence about his actions and the effect that they had.”
In victim impact statements, special prosecutor Chris Johnson, K.C., told the court the prosecutor, who cannot be identified due to a publication ban, suffered multiple facial fractures including a fractured orbital bone, and facial nerve damage. She requires ongoing medical care and may require surgery.
Johnson said the injured prosecutor has significant concerns and fears for her safety as a result of the incident – while also dealing with halted career ambitions and aspirations.
She is currently off work said the judge, with her future unclear.
The second victim’s impact statement noted she was away from her job for two months after a “painful hit in the face.”
The Crown said the woman now lives with the “constant fear of this happening again”, and “walks with a companion and never on my own.”
Lavallee, who also has assault and robbery convictions in Winnipeg, pleaded guilty to mischief for discharging an airsoft gun at Vancouver’s W.C. Shelly Park last December. A charge of setting off a false fire alarm at the Terminal Avenue Tim Hortons last October was stayed by the Crown.
With credit for pre-trial time spent in custody, Lavallee has three months left to serve followed by two years of probation.
Under the Crown and defence’s joint sentencing submission agreed to by the judge, a key probation condition is for Lavallee to leave B.C. within seven days of his release from jail.
Anderson told the court the urban environment is not healthy for Lavallee, and his father will provide a home for him north of Winnipeg, where he will engage in commercial fishing.
“Probation services is assisting him with, as I understand it, getting his identification and getting him on a bus so that he can go back to connect with his family,” said Anderson.
Lavallee did not address the court although his lawyer indicated how sorry his client is to all those he has harmed.