SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The city's largest courtroom
was nearly full Wednesday
as the impact of the
manslaughter death of Emerson
Curran in 2013 was
recounted during Roman
Bourque's sentencing hearing.
Defence lawyer Peter Harte, left, holds the door open while his client Roman Bourque leaves court Wednesday afternoon. - Shane Magee/NNSL photos |
Curran, 20, had been
working for Air Tindi that
summer. He went to a house
party the night before he was
set to go home and ended up
in an argument with Bourque.
Bourque, now 25, repeatedly
punched Curran in the
head, even after his head hit
a piano and fell unconscious.
Curran died the next day in
Edmonton.
It was an attack Crown
prosecutor Marc Leccore said
was closer to murder than
accident and NWT Supreme
Court Justice Karan Shaner
called a "impulsive, stupid,
violent act" as she sentenced
him to five years in prison
Thursday.
"Obviously seeing him
taken into custody gives us
a little bit of satisfaction,"
Michael Curran, Curran's
father, said outside the courthouse
after Bourque was
sentenced. The family would
have liked Bourque to receive
a longer sentence, he said.
He repeated that the time
spent between his son's death
and the sentencing was far
too long, at more than two
years.
The day before in court,
Curran's parents and a close
family friend spoke about
how the death has shattered
the family. A total of 23 victim
impact statements were
presented to Shaner that told
of the grief that spread across
the country beginning with
those punches on Friday,
Aug. 24, 2013.
"The real victim of this
crime is not here," Michael
Curran said, his voice breaking
with emotion and holding
up a framed photo of his son
toward the judge. He spoke
of how for a year after the
death he would spend Friday
nights imagining his son's
last moments.
"We have been sentenced
to a life of sadness and loss,"
said Catrina Curran, Emerson
Curran's mother.
When Emerson was born,
she said she had vowed to
protect him at all costs.
"I can't help but feel that I
failed in protecting him," she
said.
She has been diagnosed
as suffering depression with
post-traumatic stress disorder
and has been unable to return
to work since her son died.
"I'm angry that I've spent
over two years of my life
cleaning up Roman Bourque's
mess," she said, talking about
the reams of paperwork she
has had to deal with, such as
a $17,000 bill for the medevac
flight that carried her son to
Edmonton from Yellowknife
before his death.
Lecorre read many of
the impact statements to
the judge. As he began the
seventh statement, he broke
down in tears. Court was suspended
for five minutes while
he gathered his composure
outside the room.
A grandmother, Diane
Curran, wrote of how
unimaginable it is to have a
grandchild go off on a summer
adventure only to have
his ashes return.
There was the grandfather
Charles Curran who wrote
that he has buried five family
members but has struggled
with this death the most. He
wrote of how Curran's dog
still sits by the window, waiting
for the young man to
come home from school. But
he doesn't.
Stephen Donoghue wrote
about his son Ryan Donoghue,
one of Curran's childhood
friends, who essentially lost
a year of university following
the death because he couldn't
focus. He wrote that Ryan
Donoghue had given CPR to
someone who, in the end,
died. His son was upset he
couldn't help the man more
than he did.
He felt he needed to
because he hadn't been there
to help Curran.
"Will I forget his voice?"
Ryan Donoghue wondered
in his own statement, who
said Curran would've been
his best man at his wedding.
How does one make sense
of senseless violence, Curran's
aunt Marie-Claire Patterson
questioned. She wondered
about the lasting impact
on her son Michael Patterson,
a cousin of Curran who tried
to pull Bourque off at the
party, but was unsuccessful
and saw the beating
continue.
A friend of Curran,
Brendan Johnson,
wrote that he became
depressed and dropped
out of university. Johnson
wrote he got to
the point of waking up
knowing how good life
had been and could have been
but that it will not be like that
now.
After the statements were
read aloud and Lecorre asked
the judge for Bourque to be
sentenced to five to five and
half years in prison, defence
lawyer spoke of his client's
history.
Bourque had been
removed from his father's
care at the age of two and
went through eight foster
homes, one described as
abusive, before settling with
Jason and Rebecca Clarke
when he was 14.
He said the Clarke family
took him in because of how
polite and kind he was, pushing
the family to be involved
in various sport activities.
"He's not the monster
some people believe him to
be," Harte said.
Bourque, his hands shaking
as he read prepared
remarks, said
he'll carry the guilt of
his actions for the rest
of his life.
"I'm truly sorry for
the pain and hurt that
I have caused," he said
to Curran's parents.
"This is an utter
tragedy," Shaner said delivering
her decision yesterday.
"This was a sudden and sustained
attack. Roman could
have walked away. He didn't."
Along with five years in
prison, he's been ordered to
provide a DNA sample to
a national database and is
prohibited from possessing
firearms for 10 years after
his release.
She suggested
he be allowed to serve his
time in the territory. He is
also prohibited from directly
contacting Curran's
parents or siblings.
