Yellowknife (July 23/04) - A Rae man has been sentenced to a month in jail for assaulting his brother and threatening another man with a rifle during a drunken brawl earlier this year.

The 36-year-old man was found guilty of two counts of assault and possession of a stolen weapon on July 8 following a brief trial in Yellowknife, during which two Crown witnesses recounted a wild melee in the house the man shared with his mother and brother.

The fight started at around 9:30 on June 4th, when the man returned home -- severely intoxicated -- and lit his cigarette using the family toaster.

That angered his brother, who tried to stop him. The two men began grappling with each other while a friend looked on, said Crown attorney Darren Mahoney.

At one point, the accused grabbed the toaster by the cord and began swinging it like a mace. Following the fight -- which according to consensus, the man lost -- he picked up a hockey stick, sending his brother scurrying out of the house.

The man later walked into his bedroom, pulled out a rifle, cocked it and told the other man in the house: "I'm going to ****ing kill him."

In court, the man maintained the weapon was actually a pellet gun and not a rifle.

"You don't point guns at people," he said.

He explained his mother would hide his guns because he had a tendency to drink and he wouldn't be able to find his rifle even if wanted to. The man's lawyer also said this actions were in self defence.

"He simply wanted superior retaliatory strike force," said James Brydon.

But territorial court judge Brian Bruser said the man had indeed cocked a rifle in an act that was "grossly disproportionate to the perceived threat."

The fight between the man and his brother had long since finished when he picked up the hockey stick and cocked the gun, Bruser determined.