Aggravated assault
R. v. Mitton
Sentence and the Crown's position
Crown askedNot recorded
Judge imposed6 years' imprisonment, consecutive to the sentence being served1
What the law allows
Maximum14 years
Judge imposed6 years in custody
Austin Michael Mitton was found guilty of aggravated assault for his part in a planned group attack on an inmate in a cell at the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility. Justice Campbell imposed 6 years' imprisonment, consecutive to the sentence he was already serving, applying the principle of parity with co-offenders who received 6 years and finding that deterrence and denunciation must be the primary purposes of the sentence.
In the judge's words
1Deterrence and denunciation must be the primary purposes of the sentence in crimes of violence. An assault within a jail takes the aggravated assault to another level. Serious injuries take it further. Coordinated activity resulting in a gang assault take it even further.
The record
- Convicted of
- Aggravated assault (CC 268)
- Prior convictions
- Not recorded
- At the time of the offence
- Not stated1
- Appeal
- Not yet checked
- Counsel
- Crown: Rick Woodburn, Scott Morrison
Defence: Briann Smith, Q.C.
Sources
- https://www.canlii.org/en/ns/nssc/doc/2022/2022nssc123/2022nssc123.html Court decision
[1] Austin Mitton is being sentenced for his part in the assault
[19] Deterrence and denunciation must be the primary purposes of the sentence in crimes of violence. An assault within a jail takes the aggravated assault to another level. Serious injuries take it further. Coordinated activity resulting in a gang assault take it even further.
[28] Austin Mitton is sentenced to 6 years and he has no remand credit to apply to this sentencing, so that would be total of 2,190 days, without regard to leap years. Time served will be consecutive to the time he is currently serving.
- Criminal Code, s. 268 Record, Justice Laws Website
- R. v. Mitton, 2022 NSSC 123 Court decision, Courts of Nova Scotia