Man pleads guilty to killing uncle
Stanley Abel Jr. awaits sentencing date for Dettah manslaughter death of Herman Abel
Kirsten Fenn
Northern News Services
Wednesday, December 14, 2016
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A 30-year-old man who says he was so intoxicated he doesn't remember beating his uncle to death at a house party last March pleaded guilty to manslaughter on Monday morning.
Stanley Abel Jr. sat at the defense table in NWT Supreme Court with his lawyer Charles Davison as Crown prosecutor Marc Lecorre read aloud from an agreed statement of facts about the night the man killed his relative.
Abel Jr.'s uncle Herman Abel had been enjoying a dinner at a restaurant downtown on March 29 with his girlfriend and another friend before the group got into a cab with Abel Jr. and headed to a house party in Dettah.
The party stretched through to the early morning hours of March 30 and involved drinking alcohol - so much so on the part of Abel Jr. that he says he remembers nothing between the point of drinking at the house and waking up the next morning at his family home in Yellowknife.
Witnesses recall a violent scene, however, one Abel Jr. accepts, according to the statement of facts.
After the drinking began at the party, one of the women recalled overhearing Abel Jr. say he could "kill them all" and they would never know.
Shortly after, he became enraged. Under the impression Herman Abel and his girlfriend - who had both fallen asleep - had stolen his vodka, Abel Jr. punched his uncle, "threw two elbows," and stomped on the man's head.
The girlfriend tried unsuccessfully to stop Abel Jr., but he continued to kick the man.
When RCMP arrived at the scene early that morning, they found Herman Abel moaning. He had a swollen left eye, paired with a laceration above his right eye and blood around his mouth and nose.
Police originally arrested Abel Jr. on a charge of aggravated assault at 2:10 p.m. on March 30 but charged him with murder just before midnight when Herman Abel died of his injuries at Stanton Territorial Hospital.
The cause of the man's death was "blunt cranial trauma," according to the statement of facts read in court. Abel Jr. elected to plead guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter rather than face trial. Supreme Court judge Louise Charbonneau ordered Abel Jr. to appear in court again on Jan. 16 to set a date for sentencing.
A pre-sentence report is expected to be completed by Jan. 31, which will outline the offender's personal history and help guide the judge in making her sentencing decision.
