Leroy Redwood sentenced to seven years for 2016 taxi driver stabbing

A slight gasp from his family was the only reaction to 22-year-old Leroy Redwood’s seven year sentence for the violent stabbing of taxi driver Iqbar Singh Sharma.

Shortly after 9:00 p.m. on November 24, 2016 Redwood got into a confrontation with two friends – Levi and Zachary Blind – in the back of the Co-Op Taxi cab being driven by Sharma.

Redwood and his friends had been drinking since early in the day, and the altercation quick turned violent. Redwood lashed out, stabbing his two friends, eventually launching a vicious attack on Sharma that sent him into a two-week coma.

“He is working very hard to recover. He still has a lot of work to do, a lot of challenges as far as mobility in his leg and his arm, but he is hopeful for the future,” Rhonda Fiddler, a victim services social worker who has been working with Sharma since January said.

Sharma still walks with a the aid of a cane, his right arm rests in sling – he still can’t control it – and his once fluent English has become so difficult to make out that others can’t understand him.

Redwood, who plead guilty to three charges of aggravated assault, was sentenced to seven years in prison; five years for his attack on Sharma and one year for each subsequent assault.

“We had asked for 11 years, so a bit disappointed, but the judge thoroughly canvassed the case law in the area,” Senior Crown Prosecutor Kim Jones said after the decision.

“She certainly considered everything. We filed photographs of the injuries, medical reports, it’s clear she took that into consideration just by some of the information she provided in her decision,” Jones continued.

Justice J.E. McMurty mentioned the violent nature of the attack but countered with Redwood’s young age and lack of adult record as the basis for her decision.

Despite the Crown’s disappointment, Fiddler said Sharma was simply glad to have some closure.

Sharma isn’t the only who is glad to see a resolution, Co-Op Taxi were just as eager to see justice for their former driver.

“It’s a relief for sure to see him sentenced for what he’s done. It makes a lot of difference to us, to see that our voices are being heard and that something is being done about it,” Akshay Padama, the owner of Co-Op Taxi said.

Redwood has already served 935 days in prison, he has roughly 4.5 years remaining on his sentence. He is banned from owning firearms for the next decade, and was given a lifetime ban on possessing restricted or prohibited weapons.