By Patrick Burles - @PatrickBurles on Twitter

Blood Tribe woman admits drugs behind series of downtown assaults

Nov 8, 2018 | 3:32 PM

LETHBRIDGE – A 38-year-old Blood Tribe woman has admitted that she had been using drugs the day she assaulted two people and caused a significant disturbance at a downtown bank.

Stacy Leah Dawn White Man pleaded guilty to eight charges Thursday morning, Nov. 8, most of which were connected to a series of events just two weeks earlier.

That series began around 12:45 p.m. on Oct. 24, when White Man approached a woman who was walking downtown and said, “Give me your money if you know what’s good for you.” She then blocked the woman from getting to her car and shoved her into another vehicle, continuing to demand money, but fled when two other individuals intervened.

A short distance away and only a few minutes later, White Man encountered a 70-year-old man walking on the sidewalk and accused him of having her money. She then struck him in the face with her purse, for which the victim required stitches to his lip.

White Man then proceeded into the downtown branch of the Royal Bank of Canada, where she started yelling at customers. After leaving and returning to the bank twice, White Man then started to make stabbing motions towards the bank manager, said she would chop the heads off staff, and told the manager, “I’m going to kill you.”

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When police arrived, White Man refused to comply with their commands, and following a brief struggle, officers found her to be in possession of a stolen debit card.

White Man also admitted to a similar incident in late August, in which she confronted a man downtown, told him to get off her land and punched him in the face.

“She’d been making real efforts to try to get her life in order,” said defence lawyer Claudia Connolly, adding that White Man intends to get things back on track. She also noted that her client had been using drugs at the time of the incidents and that she barely remembers any of what happened.

The Crown and defence presented a joint sentencing submission to the judge, which he accepted and imposed on White Man. She received six months in jail and was given an enhanced pre-trial credit of 24 days, leaving just over five months to serve.