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Decision information:
Abstract: Transcript of the Oral Reasons for Sentence
Decision Content
R. v. Kochon, 2010 NWTSC 24 S-1-CR-2008-000101
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE NORTHWEST TERRITORIES
IN THE MATTER OF:
HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN
- V -
GREGORY MARK KOCHON
_________________________________________________________
Transcript of the Oral Reasons for Sentence by The
Honourable Justice J. E. Richard, sitting in Norman Wells,
in the Northwest Territories, on the 12th day of March,
A.D., 2010.
_________________________________________________________
APPEARANCES:
Mr. J. MacFarlane: Counsel for the Crown
Ms. C. Wawzonek: Counsel for the Defence
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Charges under s. 348(1)(b) & 271 Criminal Code of Canada
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1 THE COURT: The offender, Gregory Mark
2 Kochon, is a 23-year-old aboriginal man from
3 Colville Lake who has been living here in Norman
4 Wells since 2004. Yesterday a jury found him
5 guilty of a very serious crime, that is, breaking
6 and entering into a residence here in Norman
7 Wells at 4:00 in the morning and committing
8 therein a sexual assault contrary to Section
9 348(1)(b) of the Criminal Code. The maximum
10 sentence for this crime is life imprisonment.
11 Colville Lake is a small Dene community
12 which still to this day primarily lives the
13 traditional lifestyle of the Dene, and that is
14 focused on the land. This offender was raised
15 there and learned the traditional land skills of
16 the Dene people. The offender did encounter some
17 problems in his upbringing, however, as the Court
18 is told that members of his family suffered from
19 alcohol addiction.
20 The offender decided, at the age of 17, to
21 move to Norman Wells. The Court is told that he
22 has had a common-law spouse for the past five
23 years and that since coming to Norman Wells he
24 has had steady employment. At the time of
25 committing the present offence in August of 2008
26 he had two jobs, one as a bartender in a local
27 bar and the other as a maintenance man with the
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1 local Housing Authority. The offender's formal
2 education ceased halfway through grade 10, but he
3 has expressed an interest in upgrading his
4 education and also entering trades training.
5 Mr. Kochon has accumulated a criminal record
6 since coming to Norman Wells. In particular, on
7 April 24th, 2006, he was convicted of two
8 offences of break and enter with intent, two
9 offences of break and enter and commit, and one
10 offence of take auto without owner's consent.
11 The Court is advised that these prior B & Es were
12 property related. For those five crimes he was
13 sentenced on April 24th, 2006, to nine months
14 imprisonment, and he was also placed on probation
15 for one year. It is not clear from the criminal
16 record whether the one-year probation ran
17 concurrently with the nine-month jail sentence
18 or was in force for one year after the nine-month
19 sentence was served.
20 The only other entry on his criminal record
21 is dated December 22nd, 2009, and it indicates
22 that he was convicted under Section 430(4) for
23 damage to property, and also under Section 145(3)
24 for a breach of recognizance. I am told that
25 these two crimes occurred subsequent to August
26 of 2008, that is subsequent to the date of the
27 crime for which he is to be sentenced today.
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1 Indeed, the breach of recognizance relates to the
2 recognizance document whereby he was on judicial
3 interim release with respect to the present
4 charge. The sentence imposed on December 22nd,
5 2009, was time served, and the record shows that
6 Mr. Kochon had had three and a half months of
7 pre-sentence custody.
8 Since December 22nd, 2009, Mr. Kochon has
9 been remanded in custody while awaiting his trial
10 this week on this present charge, a period of two
11 and a half months, and this is taken into
12 consideration in the determination of sentence.
13 I turn now to the circumstances of the
14 serious crime for which Mr. Kochon is to be
15 sentenced this morning. The victim is a
16 29-year-old woman who is a single parent and who,
17 on the date in question, in August of 2008, was
18 living with her seven-year-old daughter in her
19 residence here in Norman Wells. She did not know
20 the offender well. She was acquainted with him
21 as the bartender at a local bar and also because
22 he was the maintenance person from the Housing
23 Authority who had repaired the screens or windows
24 at her residence earlier in the summer of 2008.
25 On the evening of August 15th the victim was
26 socializing with friends at a bar and at a dance
27 at the community hall and had consumed a fair
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1 amount of alcohol. She returned to her residence
2 in the early morning hours of August 16th, paid
3 her babysitter, and when the babysitter left the
4 victim locked the door to her residence. She
5 then went to sleep in her bed with her
6 seven-year-old daughter sleeping beside her;
7 she was fully clothed.
8 The victim awoke to find that she was naked
9 and that this offender, Gregory Kochon, was on
10 top of her having sex with her. She was
11 understandably startled, scared and confused.
12 She looked beside her and there was her
13 seven-year-old daughter lying beside her, awake
14 and eyes open. She attempted to push the
15 offender off of her and she pleaded with him,
16 saying "please don't do this, my daughter is
17 right there." She asked him to stop, but he did
18 not stop.
19 He picked her up and carried her to another
20 bedroom where he continued the assault. The
21 victim heard her daughter crying out for her.
22 She pushed the offender off of her, ran back to
23 her bedroom to comfort her daughter. The
24 offender followed her back into the victim's
25 bedroom and continued to have forcible
26 intercourse with her. When it was over, and
27 before he left, he told the victim that if she
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1 told anyone he would be back every morning.
2 Later in the morning, when the victim was
3 cleaning herself in the bathroom, she had the
4 painful and humiliating experience of removing a
5 tampon which she had been using at the time of
6 this rape, which had become stuck inside of her
7 and which was difficult to remove.
8 This horrific assault had a devastating
9 impact on the victim. The police officer who
10 interviewed her later that day described her as
11 being extremely upset and shaking uncontrollably.
12 He stated that he had to terminate the taking of
13 a formal statement from her because of her
14 condition. The Court also observed symptoms of
15 her emotional trauma when she was relating the
16 details of the assault during her testimony.
17 In the circumstances of this case it is
18 reasonable to infer that there is a second
19 victim, that is the seven-year-old daughter, who
20 was a witness to her mother being raped in her
21 own bed. Of course, we do not know in any
22 certain way how seriously the little girl was
23 traumatized or to what extent she continues to
24 suffer from such a traumatic event.
25 The offender testified at his trial and told
26 the jury that he went to this woman's home,
27 uninvited, at 4 a.m., that the seven-year-old
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1 girl let him into the house and that he went to
2 the victim's bedroom, and after drinking beer
3 with her and having a conversation with her that
4 the two of them had consensual sex.
5 In a narrative that is not unreasonably
6 described as preposterous, he says that he went
7 to the home of a woman he barely knew, uninvited,
8 at 4:00 in the morning, and had consensual sex
9 with her in the presence of her seven-year-old
10 daughter. The jury, quite understandably,
11 rejected his evidence, and it should come as no
12 surprise to Mr. Kochon that they did not believe
13 him.
14 I mention his evidence here as it indicates
15 that this offender is a man who is not taking
16 responsibility for his criminal behavior of 18
17 months ago. One of the objectives of the
18 sentence to be imposed is to promote a sense of
19 responsibility in the offender.
20 This was a predatory crime. There was
21 premeditation on the part of Gregory Kochon in
22 the commission of this offence, and that
23 distinguishes this sexual assault from many
24 others we see in the Courts which could be
25 described as crimes of opportunity. These are
26 aggravating features of Mr. Kochon's offence, as
27 is the fact that he took advantage of a
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1 vulnerable unconscious woman, asleep in her own
2 bed, in her locked residence, and in the presence
3 of a seven-year-old child.
4 There are no mitigating factors to consider
5 in the determination of sentence in this case.
6 The unlawful behavior of sexually assaulting
7 a vulnerable unconscious woman is all too common
8 in this jurisdiction and has been for 20 years or
9 more. On account of the important sentencing
10 principles of denunciation, deterrence and
11 parity, this is not a time to alter this Court's
12 practice of imposing a meaningful period of
13 incarceration in such cases.
14 It is also a fundamental principle that a
15 sentence must be proportionate to the gravity
16 of the offence and the offender's degree of
17 responsibility for it. This was egregious
18 criminal behavior by Gregory Kochon. In
19 conducting himself as he did he displayed an
20 appalling disregard for the personal integrity
21 and bodily integrity of another human being. The
22 level of his moral culpability or blameworthiness
23 is quite high.
24 I remind myself though that the sentence
25 ought not be so excessive or harsh as to dash any
26 hope for Gregory Kochon's rehabilitation. He is
27 still a young person and he has a long life ahead
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1 of him in which he can be a good person who
2 adheres to the rules of our society and who can
3 contribute to a better life for he and his family
4 and his community.
5 The sentence ought to be such as to assist
6 him in rehabilitating himself into a law-abiding
7 citizen, and in this regard I note Mr. Kochon has
8 indicated a desire to improve his lot in life
9 during his period of incarceration by taking
10 courses to upgrade his education and to
11 participate in the AA program and other programs
12 that are offered within the correctional
13 facilities. It will indeed be up to him to
14 take advantage of those opportunities.
15 I hereby grant the mandatory firearms
16 prohibition order pursuant to Section 109 for a
17 period of ten years following Mr. Kochon's
18 release from imprisonment. Pursuant to Section
19 113 I hereby authorize the registrar of firearms
20 or the chief firearms officer to issue to
21 Mr. Kochon a licence to use firearms for
22 sustenance purposes during the period of the
23 firearms prohibition order.
24 The DNA order sought by the prosecution
25 pursuant to Section 487.051(2) shall issue.
26 Also, I grant the prosecution's application
27 pursuant to Section 490.012(2) for an order
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1 requiring Gregory Kochon, during his lifetime,
2 to comply with the Sex Offender Information
3 Registration Act.
4 In view of the fact that Mr. Kochon has been
5 incarcerated and therefore unemployed for the
6 past several months and that he will be
7 incarcerated for some time, I exempt him from
8 payment of the statutory victim surcharge under
9 Section 737. Please stand, Mr. Kochon.
10 Gregory Mark Kochon, for the crime that you
11 have committed, break enter and commit sexual
12 assault contrary to Section 348(1)(b) of the
13 Criminal Code, it is the sentence of this Court
14 that you be imprisoned for a period of four
15 years. I direct the clerk to endorse the Warrant
16 of Committal with this Court's recommendation
17 that the penitentiary officials allow you to
18 serve your period of incarceration at a
19 correctional facility within the Northwest
20 Territories. You may be seated.
21 Counsel, is there anything else with respect
22 to this case? Mr. MacFarlane?
23 MR. MACFARLANE: No, Your Honour.
24 THE COURT: Ms. Wawzonek?
25 MS. WAWZONEK: No, Sir.
26 THE COURT: Thank you. I want to thank
27 both counsel for their conduct of this difficult
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1 case throughout this week, and I want to thank
2 the court staff for their usual excellent
3 performance of their duties. We will close
4 court.
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7 Certified to be a true and
accurate transcript, pursuant
8 to Rules 723 and 724 of the
Supreme Court Rules.
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11 Joel Bowker
Court Reporter
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