A Provincial Court judge in Prince George found a man guilty of assault on June 5 for spitting at a jail guard, but rejected both Crown and defence sentencing proposals.
Zackary William Edward Isaac, 38, committed the offence July 8, 2024 in Prince George Regional Correctional Centre. Court heard he has a lengthy criminal record dating back to 2000, including 13 convictions for assault and four for assaulting a peace officer.
Judge Martin Nadon called spitting an egregious form of assault because of the possibility of transmission of disease by bodily fluid.
“That's particularly so in an institutional setting,” Nadon said. “Especially in a situation like this, where the person who's spitting is an admitted drug user.”
Nadon said the surveillance video showed both the assault and the “immediate, proportionate” response. Isaac was punched, taken to the ground and pepper-sprayed.
“None of that was done in a gentle fashion,” Nadon said.
Isaac then spent 15 days in segregation.
Crown prosecutor Lisa Sukkau asked Nadon to sentence Isaac to six-to-eight months in jail. Isaac’s defence lawyer, Connor Carleton, sought 60 days.
But Nadon gave Isaac, who is homeless and taking medication for schizophrenia and bipolar mood disorder, one day, time-served.
“Given all of the background, all of the collateral things that have happened here and my findings here, that's the proportionate and appropriate sentence here,” he said. “It takes into account all of the sentencing factors and the peculiar facts of this case.”
Nadon said Fort St. James-born Isaac, the son of an Indian residential school survivor, grew up in government care after his mother died and “began a journey of substance abuse that has lasted essentially to today's date, moving up the drug ladder to methamphetamine and opiates.”
While he was in custody last year, he was detoxing from heroin.
“I don't want to do heroin ever again, and hopefully I get into treatment for the other stuff,” Isaac said in court.
Isaac, who has worked for a concert production company, also suffered a brain injury in a motorcycle crash in 2009 or 2010 and was stabbed in a 2019 murder attempt. “The lifestyle he's been leading is taking its toll on him as well,” Nadon said.
Isaac is in custody on a charge of theft under $5,000 for a March 18 incident. He is scheduled for a Sept. 4 trial on charges of theft under $5,000 and possessing a weapon for a dangerous purpose connected to an Oct. 3, 2024 incident.
