Saying he will never forgive himself for what happened, a Nadleh man gave his account of how he came to kill his spouse 2 1/2 years ago during a hearing Thursday at the Prince George courthouse.
Garrett Steven George, 27, has pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the death of Destiny Rae Tom, whose badly beaten body was found outside a home where the two had attended a party on the reserve near Fort Fraser during the early morning of March 23, 2013. She was 21 years old at the time.
Reading from a lengthy prepared statement as he stood in the prisoner's box, a tearful and often sobbing George said he remembers leaving the party to escape a fight with another man and then waking up next to Tom in their own home a short walk away.
He said an urgent Tom shook him awake and told him they left their phone back and their car keys back at the party. Both still drunk, they got up and made their way to the house, he told the court.
George hesitated briefly when he saw what appeared to be the last of the partiers leaving but then continued on and knocked on the home's front door.
"There was no answer so I told her we should go home and come back later," George said. "And she got mad and pushed me off the porch and I hit the pole and I was winded. And we got into a scuffle and we got down on the driveway."
George said he couldn't remember if he "jerseyed" her, or pulled her hoodie over her head, or if he was trying to but then he hit her and let her go.
"I told her to stop and I was walking away and she came at me again and kept hitting me from behind and she was getting mad about Nadleh and she kept calling me down. And I turned around and I backhanded her and she fell down.
"And I started yelling at her and kept giving her shit for trying to fight me."
While down, Tom was bicycle-kicking him, George said.
"I got mad and I grabbed her and I started dragging her and then I stopped and I kicked her in the back of the leg and I gave her a charley horse," George said. "I kept getting mad at her because she wouldn't stop trying to fight me and I told her to get up and let's go home."
Realizing she couldn't get up because of the charley horse, George said he helped her up. He told her he thought they still had keys in the car and suggested they sit inside the vehicle.
As they walked to the car, Tom was still belligerent, according to George, and kept "calling me down."
Although unsure whether he hit her, George said he remembered shoving her into the car and then getting into the driver's seat. Tom pulled out some beer and George cigarettes for himself and her.
"I thought we were calming down because we weren't really saying anything to each other," George said.
He then realized she had a bleeding nose - a pathologist concluded it had been broken, the court heard during the first day of the hearing on Wednesday - and tried to clean it for her.
"And then she asked if I would still kiss her, so I kissed her and we were both crying," George said. "And then she said she was thinking of going back home."
Tom's parents lived on the Palling reserve, located east of Burns Lake part of the Wet'suwet'en First Nation. The Nadleh reserve is in the Nadleh Whut'en traditional territory.
"I said 'fine, whatever,'" George said. He said he got out of the car and started walking down the road. But he said Tom got out too and started yelling at him.
"She said 'you don't care,'" and accused him of wanting to get away from her so he could go and have sex with one of the other women who were at the party. George said he stopped, walked back towards her and admitted that's what he wanted to do.
"Then she got mad and she started hitting me and calling me down and I just snapped," George said.
After a short pause, to fight back a sob, George continued.
"I started hitting her back...I remember I had her in a headlock and I kept kicking her...while she was down and I ran out of breath and I was pacing back and forth and I was giving her shit," George said. "I kept asking her, 'why the fuck do you keep trying to start shit with me?'
"And then I stopped because I noticed she wasn't talking anymore."
George said she remained that way, lying prone on the ground, despite his efforts to revive her.
"I kept saying, 'baby, get up, please, we need to go home, please baby, get up, we need to go home,'" George said.
Two other Nadleh residents, Nathan Louie and Samantha Sutherland, who had also been at the party, had found her lifeless body by the car with her top up, exposing her breasts, and her pants down, exposing her genitals, the court had heard Wednesday. In apparent answer, George said he remembered they needed the keys and the phone and so had checked her pants and then her bra, to no avail.
After looking elsewhere, he went back and tried to pick her up but she was too heavy. George said he decided to run home and get his mother to call for an ambulance. He gave Tom a kiss and left but soon stopped because he felt sick and started vomiting.
At about that time, he saw the two others who came across Tom's body driving by in Louie's van. George said he heard a loud thump and then the Louie and Sutherland arguing. Concerned they had run over Tom, he walked back, George said.
He said he refused their advice to get into the van and while they left, George remained at the scene until the RCMP arrived, screaming for help. A cousin also showed up and stayed with him, George said.
George was arrested at the scene but then released to the psychiatric ward at University Hospital of Northern B.C. after expressing thoughts of suicide. He was arrested again in February 2015 and charged with second degree murder and, following a lengthy voir dire to determine admissible evidence, George pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
Manslaughter means the culprit killed the victim accidentally. To get a conviction for second degree murder, the Crown must show there was an intent to kill the person out of impulse. For first degree murder, planning and forethought must also be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
George, who was 24 years old at the time of her death, went on to talk about how much his missed Tom and how much he regretted his actions. The two had met about five years before and were soon living with her parents in Palling before moving into his mother's home in Nadleh and were the parents of a young girl.
"She was the best part of my life, she meant everything to me," George said. "She was my love, my best friend, she was the mother of my child, she was the best part of me."
George said Tom had a "big heart," was always willing to help others and "very smart, very shy, quiet and soft spoken. She would think twice and speak once."
George expressed remorse for what happened that day and for the way he had treated her during the time they were together. On Wednesday, Crown counsel outlined a series of assaults George committed against Tom, and the consequent run-ins with the law.
"For my whole life, I grew up with anger in my heart and hate in my eyes," George said. "I was always in trouble, I was always fighting with my brothers, with my family and with my friends. Before I knew it, all that hate growing up, it consumed me and it destroyed my life.
"I want everyone to know that I am sorry, I'll never forgive myself for what I did."
George said he knows he's committed a serious offence as well as other crimes in the past.
"But in my heart, I am not a criminal, I am a young man who is lost," George said.
Following George's address to the court, Crown prosecutor Cassandra Malfair said there are some inconsistencies between his account of what happened and evidence that had been presented.
She said Tom's body was cold and her clothes were frozen into the ground when Louie and Sutherland found her body, suggesting the assault occurred much earlier than George claimed. Further, she said Sutherland called 911, in contrast to George's claim he was the one trying to get help for Tom.
However, Malfair said a phone was indeed found in a nearby snowbank.
Defence lawyer Jim Heller countered that it was very cold that morning (about -10 C, according to submissions on Wednesday) and that George was "sincerely trying to get help" until Louie and Sutherland showed up.
At that point, Heller said George panicked and "shifted into a mode of denial."
While Malfair argued for 10 to 12 years in prison, Heller contended six to nine years is more appropriate. While Malfair emphasized denunciation and deterrence, Heller said George is still reasonably young and remains a prospect for successful rehabilitation and urged B.C. Supreme Court Justice Miriam Gropper to refrain from imposing a sentence "that would be crushing."
Heller conceded there was a "pattern of violence" but also noted Tom's parents let George live with them and their daughter even though he had been on a series of no-contact orders from the court.
"It wasn't all bad, it couldn't have been all bad," Heller said.
Tom's parents are now caring for the couple's child. While giving a victim impact statement on Wednesday, Tom's mother, Vivian, said she's been "through hell and back" since her daughter's death.
But she said she has forgiven George and wants to maintain contact with both George and his family so that his daughter will have "strong roots on both sides."
As George was led out of the court, he looked back and waved at the now seven-year-old girl as she stood next to her grandmother and she waved back, both with smiles on their faces.
After packing to overflowing a smaller courtroom during the first day of the hearing on Wednesday, it was moved to a larger one on Thursday where nearly 100 people from the two bands took in the proceedings from the gallery.
Saying she expects she will need a half day to read it out, Gropper will issue her decision on sentencing on Wed., Nov. 16 in courtroom 104, 10 a.m. start.
