The Crown is seeking a sentence of between four and six years for a Lytton man who stabbed his uncle to death during a drunken fight nearly two years ago.
Colton Smith pleaded guilty to manslaughter after initially being charged with second-degree murder. His sentencing hearing began on Tuesday in B.C. Supreme Court in Kamloops.
Smith, 22, admitted to having stabbed his uncle, Jeremiah Johnson Smith, on Jan. 22, 2016.
Crown prosecutor Camille Cook said the two began fighting after being kicked out of a house party at a home on Two Mile Road near Lytton.
“The accused and the deceased started to argue and they became involved in a physical fight with each other,” she said, noting neighbours described the frenzied scene as “a ruckus.”
During the fight, Cook said, Smith entered a neighbouring home and grabbed a steak knife off the kitchen table before resuming the fight with his uncle, stabbing him in the stomach.
“He was in a rage,” Cook said.
A neighbour drove Smith and his uncle to a health centre in Merritt, where the elder Smith was pronounced dead. Colton Smith was arrested a short time later.
An autopsy found the cause of death to be blood loss.
Cook asked B.C. Supreme Court Justice Sheri Donegan to impose a prison sentence in the range of four to six years. He has served the equivalent of two years behind bars awaiting trial.
Smith’s relatives sat in the first row of the courtroom while Cook outlined the slaying. She acknowledged it is particularly troubling for the family.
“On one hand, Mr. Colton Smith is a beloved family member,” Cook said. “But, of course, he is also now the one who took the life of another beloved family member.”
Defence lawyer Richard Kaiser urged Donegan to hand Smith a sentence of less than two years of new time to be followed by a lengthy probation term in the three-year range.
“I think a better way to deal with this is to figure out how to integrate him back into the community,” Kaiser said, noting Smith hopes to seek treatment for addictions upon his release from custody. “He wants to do the things. It’s hard to gauge the sincerity of it, but I’ve met with him countless times and it seems this is not the path down which he wants to lead his life.”
Donegan is expected to deliver her sentence at a later date.
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