A BC Court of Appeal tribunal reduced a man’s Prince George Provincial Court jail sentence by more than five months.
Kenneth Conrad Izzard, born in 1985, pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and four offences related to possession of weapons and breaching bail conditions. Izzard was sentenced last September to 1,350 days, which was reduced to 790 days (almost 26 months) after credit for time served.
The most serious crime involved the unprovoked stabbing of a heroin-addicted woman in a Terrace homeless shelter in November 2022.
The violent crime happened after Izzard finished a five-and-a-half-year sentence for manslaughter. In 2016, Izzard was convicted for using a hammer to fatally beat a drug dealer on the head over $30.
The unanimous June 24 ruling in favour of the appeal, written by Justice Geoffrey Gomery, said Izzard’s sentence in Prince George was “marred by an error in principle.” The judge did not fully consider Izzard was fathered by a Cree man and brought up in Toronto’s black community by a mother who worked as a prostitute to support her alcohol and drug addictions.
“There were pimps, guns and drugs in the home,” Gomery wrote. “Mr. Izzard suffered physical abuse from his mother and others in the house and ran away at age 15.”
The appeal ruling noted that the Crown conceded the judge’s discussion of Izzard’s background “was brief,” but believed the decision would withstand appeal.
Gomery reduced Izzard’s sentence to 1,185 days, which worked out to 625 days after time served credit.
He also imposed a 12-month probation order. Gomery said the shorter sentence is justified by Izzard’s moral blameworthiness due to his background and the “guarded hope for rehabilitation.”
