Supreme Court

R. v. Yukon, 2005 NWTSC 24
Date: 20050225
Docket: S-1-CR-2004000034


IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE NORTHWEST TERRITORIES

IN THE MATTER OF:


HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN


- v -


FRANCIS PAUL YUKON


Transcript of the Reasons for Sentence delivered by The Honourable Justice J.E. Richard, in Yellowknife, in the Northwest Territories, on the 21st day of February, A.D. 2005.


APPEARANCES:

Ms. C. Carrasco:  Counsel on behalf of the Crown

Mr. J. MacFarlane:  Counsel on behalf of the Accused


Charge under s. 236(b) C.C.


THE COURT:   The offender before the court, Francis Yukon, has pleaded guilty to the serious crime of manslaughter contrary to section 236 of the Criminal Code. In June of 2003, Mr. Yukon participated in the brutal beating and killing of a man at a crack house here in Yellowknife because of a $1,400 drug debt. Today, he is to be sentenced for his part in this terrible crime.

Before proceeding further I will just reiterate that there is a publication ban in this case which prohibits the publication or broadcasting of any of the details of Mr. Yukon's crime - the evidence presented at this hearing, submissions made by counsel, or any details of the crime that are contained in these reasons. That publication ban will continue until such time as the jury is selected in the Delorme case, unless Mr. Delorme's case is earlier resolved by the court.

For the purposes of this sentencing hearing, counsel have placed before the court a statement of agreed facts, Exhibit 31. I will summarize these undisputed facts.

A Mr. Dale Courtoreille ran a crack cocaine business at a so-called “crack house” here in Yellowknife and this offender Francis Yukon, a Mr. Richard Tutin, and Individual “A” were

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associates of Mr. Courtoreille in that enterprise.

In the early morning hours of June 16th, 2003, Individual “A”, Mr. Yukon and Mr. Tutin were engaged in a crack cocaine and drinking party at the crack house. The victim of this crime, one Justin Hai Van Vo, arrived at the house and was allowed inside and joined in the party. In due course Individual “A” became angry and started to harass Mr. Vo about a $1,400 drug debt that Mr. Vo owed to Mr. Courtoreille.

During this discussion which led to violence, both Individual “A” and Mr. Yukon were smoking crack cocaine.

Individual “A” backhanded or slapped Mr. Vo in the face and then both Individual “A” and Mr. Yukon took turns hitting Mr. Vo on the head and body.

On a coffee table in front of them was a machete, some knives, a crowbar and a hammer.

Mr. Tutin was present during all of this. Also, Mr. Yukon's girlfriend was in a bedroom in the house and could hear yells and screams but did not leave the bedroom.

Individual “A” hit Mr. Vo with the crowbar on the head and the arm and Mr. Vo started to bleed. Mr. Tutin tried to intervene to stop the

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assault but Mr. Yukon prevented him from doing so. Mr. Vo was crying out in pain and pleading for the assault to stop. At one point he got up and ran towards the window trying to escape, but Individual “A” caught him, grabbed a knife and started stabbing Mr. Vo. Mr. Vo bit Individual “A” on the arm and Individual “A” was jabbing Mr. Vo again with the knife.

Individual “A” told this offender, Francis Yukon, to grab a long, yellow electrical extension cord which was there and to tie Mr. Vo's feet. Mr. Yukon took the extension cord and got down on the floor on top of Mr. Vo and wrapped it around Mr. Vo's feet and legs. And then Mr. Vo stopped resisting the assault.

When Mr. Vo started moving again, Individual “A” took up the remaining length of the extension cord and wrapped it around Mr. Vo's neck, at the same time saying “I'm going to kill you, you little bastard.” Individual “A” then kicked Mr. Vo in the head a couple of times and pulled on the extension cord. Mr. Vo stopped moving and it was apparent that he was dead.

While Individual “A” was wrapping the extension cord around Mr. Vo's neck, Mr. Yukon was standing beside Mr. Tutin.

This offender, Francis Yukon, then assisted

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Individual “A” to place the body first into a sleeping bag and then into a large hockey bag.

The two of them and Mr. Tutin then cleaned up the blood and other evidence of the struggle.

Mr. Tutin was sent to borrow a pick-up truck to use to dispose of the body.

Mr. Yukon telephoned Mr. Courtoreille and told him to get over to the house. Mr. Courtoreille arrived at the house and gave Mr. Tutin money for gas for the borrowed truck and drove Mr. Tutin to the place where he borrowed the truck.

The three men - Individual “A”, Yukon and Tutin - then put the body in the pick-up truck and drove out the Ingraham Trail just past the Yellowknife River where they disposed of Mr. Vo's body. Individual “A” was concerned that some of his DNA might be on Mr. Vo's body so a decision was made to burn the body to remove any traces of DNA. The burning body was discovered a few hours later and the police were called.

The three men - Yukon, Tutin and “A” - returned to the crack house and continued with their clean-up efforts.

Mr. Courtoreille arrived with some alcohol and some cocaine and the four of them drove to a deserted road on the Con Mine property and

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consumed alcohol and cocaine and discussed what each of them would say if they were questioned by the police about Mr. Vo's presence at the crack house and about Mr. Vo's disappearance.

Twelve days later on June 28th, the police arrested all four men. Initially, each of them told the police the cover-up story that they had agreed to.

The day after his arrest and subsequently, Mr. Yukon gave a warned statement to the police confirming some of his involvement in the assault on Mr. Vo and subsequent events.

The pathologist who performed the autopsy on Mr. Vo's body is of the opinion that the cause of death was ligature strangulation evidenced by the tight wraps of the electrical extension cord around Mr. Vo's neck and the bruising of Mr. Vo's underlying neck structures.

In April 2004, Mr. Tutin pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact to murder. He received an effective sentence of three and a half years' imprisonment after taking into account presentencing custody.

Mr. Courtoreille also pleaded guilty in April 2004 to being an accessory after the fact to murder and received an effective sentence of three years after taking into account

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presentencing custody.

The reasons of the sentencing judge can be found at 2004 NWTSC 20 and 2004 NWTSC 25.

Individual “A” is charged with murder and has not yet had his trial.

This offender, Francis Yukon, has been in custody since the day of his arrest on June 28th, 2003, approximately 20 months. In accordance with the case law and the usual practice of the court, he will receive credit on account of that time in custody, that is, credit towards the sentence to be imposed.

Mr. Yukon pleads guilty to the crime of manslaughter, an admission that he participated in this brutal assault that led to Mr. Vo's death.

Although, sadly, in this small jurisdiction of ours we have numerous crimes of violence causing death which come before the court, this particular crime is unique in the Northwest Territories. I say that in the sense that here we have three or four men all involved in the illegal drug trade ganging up on a fifth man also involved in the drug trade in order to extract payment of a $1,400 drug debt or to punish for non-payment of a $1,400 drug debt, leading to a brutal, sordid killing and the burning of the

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body.

This offender, Francis Yukon, is now 29 years of age and is an aboriginal person who grew up in Deline and was raised by his grandparents there. He reached grade 10, I'm told, in school in Deline and apparently moved to Yellowknife a number of years ago. He comes from a large well-known family in Deline, the Yukon family.

His family has written a letter of support for him and they have presented it to the court. Some members of his family have travelled here to Yellowknife to be with him today. This is commendable in my view, that is, that the family stands beside him in this difficult time for him even though they now know what he did that brings him to court today.

Francis Yukon is fortunate to have such a family. Family is important, and I do hope that Mr. Yukon reflects on that aspect of his life while he is serving his term of imprisonment and awaiting his release.

The manslaughter conviction for which Mr. Yukon is being sentenced today is not Mr. Yukon's first conviction for a crime of violence. He has a record of 14 previous Criminal Code offences starting in 1989 and including six convictions for crimes of violence:

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In 1993 at Deline, he was convicted of break and enter and committing an assault and received a sentence of one month in jail; in 1995 at Deline, assault causing bodily harm, 60 days in jail; in 1999 at Deline, assault causing bodily harm, three months in jail; in 1999 at Yellowknife, common assault, four months in jail; April 2002 in Yellowknife, robbery, a sentence of one day in jail plus time served which was five and a half months; and in August of 2002 at Yellowknife, another conviction for assault for which he received a sentence of five months' imprisonment followed by a year of probation. So Mr. Yukon would have completed his last sentence just months before participating in the killing of Justin Vo and indeed would have still been on probation for the assault conviction of August '02.

His criminal record and the fact that he was still on probation at the time of committing the crime of manslaughter is an aggravating circumstance. It also an aggravating feature that Mr. Yukon acted in concert with another individual in perpetrating this extreme violence on the victim. The victim was virtually defenceless against these two men.

Although there is no evidence that Francis

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Yukon himself intended to cause death to Mr. Vo, he did set out to cause harm to Mr. Vo, indeed telling his girlfriend that they were going to “put a scare into Mr. Vo”.

This was a prolonged attack and not just one blow, and the continuation or escalation of the assault almost amounted to torture.

On the facts before me, it was Individual “A” who killed Mr. Vo, and Mr. Yukon assisted “A” in killing Mr. Vo.

Mr. Yukon's moral blameworthiness is high. He participated in a brutal beating of the victim all over a $1,400 drug debt and he participated in the sordid disposal of the victim's body and in cleaning up the crime scene and in concocting a cover-up story to the police.

As opposed to the remorse which Mr. Yukon expresses in court today, which I do take to be genuine remorse, this is far different from Mr. Yukon's conduct immediately after the killing. His conduct then in participating in the cover-up and the disposal of the body was callous and without remorse.

On the mitigating side, Mr. Yukon has pleaded guilty to manslaughter and now accepts responsibility for his role in the death of Justin Vo. He was originally charged with

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murder. His preliminary inquiry was held, and his trial on the murder charge was scheduled and rescheduled.

He retained new counsel just a few months ago and took a fresh look at his situation and with the assistance of his counsel made arrangements with the Crown prosecutor to resolve his charge by way of a guilty plea to manslaughter. This public acceptance of responsibility and the dispensing with the need for a lengthy and costly trial acts to mitigate the sentence that would otherwise be imposed.

This court has commented many times in recent years about the prevalence of crack cocaine in this community and the devastation which it has caused in our community. The case of Francis Yukon and of the late Justin Vo brings home that reality in a very dramatic and forceful way. Just consider what crack cocaine has done for these two men.

Mr. Yukon acknowledges that he started using crack cocaine here in Yellowknife a few years before this killing. He became a heavy user. In the fall of 2002, he moved into the crack house, and in the months leading up to June 2003 he was existing only for his next hit of cocaine, and then he participated in the killing of another

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human being all because of a $1,400 drug debt. The principles of denunciation and deterrence require a substantial penitentiary sentence in this case. Also, the principle of proportionality and the principle of parity, and here, I am in particular referring to the sentences imposed on Messrs Tutin and Courtoreille for being accessories after the fact - both of these additional principles also compel a substantial term of imprisonment in a federal penitentiary.

Counsel are in general agreement that the range of sentence in this case given all of the circumstances ought to be six to eight years. I agree, however after much consideration I've determined that the appropriate sentence is at the upper extreme of that range, that is, eight years.

The Crown prosecutor asks the Court to exercise its discretionary power under section 743.6 and to make an order delaying Mr. Yukon's eligibility for parole until he has served at least one-half of his penitentiary sentence. In considering this application I am guided again by the principles of denunciation and deterrence. The circumstances of the commission of this offence by Mr. Yukon are indeed egregious.

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Mr. Yukon's personal circumstances include the fact that he is still only a man of 29 years of age. He has a criminal record including crimes of violence, but his longest sentence up until now was six months' imprisonment. There's no evidence that he has violated parole.

From his statement to the court today, I accept that this tragedy and his role in it is indeed a wake-up call for him.

In all of the circumstances I find that the expression of our community's denunciation of this crime and the objective of deterrence are adequately met by a sentence of eight years' imprisonment and the further punishment of delayed parole eligibility is not required. Accordingly, I decline to make an order under section 743.6 of the Criminal Code and I will leave the matter of parole eligibility to be determined by the National Parole Board in the usual course.

Please stand now, Mr. Yukon.

Francis Yukon, I'm giving you the equivalent of three years' credit for the time that you have been in custody since your arrest for this crime and I hereby sentence you to a further term of imprisonment of five years for the crime of manslaughter contrary to section 236 of the

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Criminal Code.

The mandatory firearms prohibition order will issue for a period of ten years pursuant to section 109 of the Criminal Code.

There will be no victim fine surcharge.

You may sit down.

Anything further on this case, counsel?

MS. CARRASCO:  No, thank you, sir.

MR. MacFARLANE:  Just one final point, sir. I realize it's often the case where sentences in excess of two years but closer to two years, there's sometimes a recommendation that the offender be able to serve the sentence in the north if possible. I know that some of his family members have voiced concern about that. Given the length of the sentence I'll leave that in Your Honour's hands, but he has spent a year and a half in the North Slave Correctional Centre, he is familiar with that facility, does have family here and in the north. So the request, if Your Honour feels it's appropriate, is to put a notation on the warrant of committal to that effect.

THE COURT:   Thank you. I did see that request in the family's letter to the court. However I'm aware that the officials in the federal penitentiary service and the local

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correctional centre as a matter of course consider each northern offender for the possibility of remaining at an institution in the north. This case is a little unusual and I'm aware that that consideration is going to be given in any event, so I'm going to leave it to the appropriate officials to make that determination without any particular recommendation from the court in this case.

MR. MacFARLANE:  Thank you, sir.

THE COURT:   Thank you. Close court.


Certified to be a true and accurate transcript pursuant to Rule 723 and 724 of the Supreme Court Rules of Court.

Annette Wright, RPR, CSR(A)
Court Reporter

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