The former gang member convicted of aggravated assault against StarPhoenix journalist Bob Florence has been sentenced to 3-1â„2 years in prison.
Charles Robert Ellwood, 22, will start serving the penitentiary term after he finishes serving a previous prison sentence, from which he was on parole at the time of the Feb. 27 attack on Florence, 51.
“It sends a chill through the community when a man of good character and good contributions to society is struck down just because he was walking home,” Crown prosecutor Gary Parker said at a sentencing hearing Thursday.
Judge Doug Agnew said he doesn’t know exactly what happened the night Florence received injuries that left him with a skull fracture and brain injury. Florence spent seven weeks in the hospital.
Florence has no memory of the event or the month after. The only accounts of what happened came from Ellwood and his wife.
Agnew has said he had “a great deal of difficulty accepting” Ellwood’s version of events, which included “numerous known lies and attempts to minimize what happened.”
Ellwood said Florence surprised him by approaching him from behind while he and his wife were arguing loudly in the intersection of Avenue B and 37th Street.
“It appears Mr. Florence did something that attracted Mr. Ellwood’s attention,” and possibly because he was angry at his wife, Ellwood punched Florence once, forcefully, in the forehead, Agnew said Thursday. Florence fell back and his head struck the pavement.
The assault was unprovoked, unjustified and involved grossly excessive force by any measure, Agnew said.
Ellwood thought he might have killed Florence but he didn’t call for an ambulance. Instead, he and his wife ran home, Agnew found.
Ellwood’s violent history and his 2009 conviction for trafficking in cocaine were aggravating factors in determining the sentence, the judge said, noting the drug subculture is fraught with violence.
People “should not have to fear their life will be endangered if they approach someone on the street,” Agnew said.
Parker asked for a lengthy term of six years. He referred to a National Parole Board decision that said Ellwood had been a member of a street gang in Calgary. Ellwood was released on parole in November 2009.
Defence lawyer Brian Pfefferle had asked for 15- to 18-month sentence to be served in a provincial jail, but his client knew it was “an uphill battle” to avoid a penitentiary term, given his past record, he said
A passerby found Florence lying in the intersection, just a few blocks from his home shortly after midnight. The writer had been walking home, as was his habit, after finishing a late shift at the newspaper.
He has returned to work, though he continues to suffer some dizziness and weakness.
Comments
Want to discuss? Please read our Commenting Policy first.