Lethbridge man gets 4.5 years for manslaughter
LETHBRIDGE – The sentencing of a 42-year old Lethbridge man on a charge of manslaughter proceeded Wednesday (Jan. 4), despite concerns from the defence.
In September, Lucien Maurice Cranechief entered a guilty plea to manslaughter on the day he was to begin a three-week trial.
He admitted that on Sept. 17, 2014, he kicked 37-year old Cynthia Pearl Badarm in the abdomen after she refused to give him alcohol. The impact broke one of her ribs, which punctured her spleen and led to her death. Both the Crown and defence submitted a joint submission of four-and-a-half years in prison and a pair of pre-sentence reports were ordered, with sentencing set for Jan. 4.
To open the sentencing hearing, defence lawyer, Telmo dos Santos stated that in two of the reports, his client refused to take responsibility for Badarm’s death. When he asked Cranechief why, he said he couldn’t get a response, telling the court that he felt Cranechief could no longer instruct him. Dos Santos continued by saying he no longer believed his client was fit for trial and that another assessment should be ordered to determine his exact mental state, as Cranechief suffers from Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder and may not understand what he was agreeing to.