A man who is serving a prison sentence for stabbing a woman in the neck, partially severing her spinal cord, and then trying to intimidate witnesses to the crime has been granted “one-chance” release into the community.
In making the decision, a two-person Parole Board of Canada panel expressed mixed feelings about 39-year-old Aaron Craig Sutherland’s behaviour while behind bars. Currently serving a five-year, four-month sentence for the Dec. 27, 2012 attack at a 200-block Ruggles Street home, Sutherland has been placed into segregation five times over that span, most recently in November 2016, according to the panel’s report.
Guards had found him preparing to inject what appeared to be Fentanyl into himself and a cellmate.
He denied committing the act and was transferred to a maximum security institution.
To his credit, Sutherland had completed Grade 12 and had obtained his Dogwood diploma but, due to the transfer, he was unable to complete a high-intensity program related to violence prevention and substance abuse.
While it was suggested in an assessment that he should return to medium security and complete the program before being released, a one-chance release was recommended with several conditions.
If Sutherland fails to meet any of those conditions, he will automatically serve the rest of his sentence in prison.
Sutherland has been accepted into a halfway house in the Northern Interior – the specific community was not named – where he will have access to a 10 1/2-week reintegration training program.
Following completion, he will be transferred to another location for substance abuse treatment or a 90-day in-house re-assessment.
“The plan would involve very tight controls, supervision and rigid curfews, with monthly police reporting and face-to-face meetings four times per month with your parole supervisor,” the panel said.
Sutherland will also have to participate in a 25-week community maintenance program, a 15-week domestic violence prevention program, attendance at Alcoholic Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous meetings and an in-house substance abuse treatment program.
“Your schedule would be strictly planned one week in advance and your movements would be closely monitored,” the panel added.
At the time of committing the offence, Sutherland had been drinking and was high on methamphetamine. He stabbed the woman during a confrontation with a girlfriend who had threatened to throw his possessions out onto the street.
The knife blade was successfully removed during emergency surgery in Vancouver but the victim continued to suffer effects similar to seizures, was unable to run and lacked feeling in an arm and a leg, the court heard during sentencing in February 2014.
While in custody at Prince George Regional Correctional Centre, Sutherland’s girlfriend kept in contact with him through Facebook and invited him to call her on the telephone. Although they expressed their love for each other, Sutherland also threatened to stab people in their throats if they testified against him and suggested a friend who was about to get out of jail would go around to “get everyone’s story straight.”
