Lethbridge man given 4-year sentence in 2015 beating death

There were tears in the courtroom Friday morning at the Lethbridge Courthouse, as 40- year-old James Gregory Gurney was sentenced to four years behind bars for the beating death of his friend.

Tragedy was the word used by a judge to describe the death of 47-year-old Gifford George Good Dagger nearly two years ago, on Aug. 31, 2015.

“It’s been very hard on me,” Good Dagger’s sister, Tanya Black Plume, said. “There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think of him and wish he was here.”

Gurney originally pleaded not guilty to a single count of manslaughter and was set to stand trial this month. But in July he changed his plea to guilty and admitted to beating Good Dagger in a drunken rage.

An agreed statement of facts said Good Dagger was found in an alley around 9:30 p.m. that night, near the support services residence where both the victim and Gurney lived.

The Crown prosecutor says Gurney told case workers that he and the victim had gotten into a fight over inappropriate remarks made by Good Dagger about a female staff member.

An autopsy revealed Good Dagger sustained multiple blunt force injuries to his head, torso and extremities. Even though there was no skull fracture, there was evidence of a brain injury and Good Dagger was taken to hospital where he died the next day.

The four-year sentence was agreed on by the Crown and defence. Gurney has just under a year remaining in his sentence after being given time-and-a-half credit for the 734 days already served behind bars.

“We looked at the tragic circumstances,” defence lawyer Greg White said. “The death of Mr. Good Dagger and also the fetal alcohol spectrum disorder and the Gladue factors, the disadvantaged background that Mr. Gurney had been brought up, colonialism those sorts of things — we came to this sentence, it’s appropriate.”

But it’s not enough for Good Dagger’s family.

“I’m relived that this chapter is done, that we’re done and we don’t have to come to court anymore,” Black Plume said. “But I’m not satisfied with the outcome, I wish it was longer, but there’s nothing I can do about it but just accept it.”