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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - A sexual assault in Stanton Territorial Hospital's psych ward, an assault with a weapon and death threats have justified nearly a year one 57-year-old Yellowknife man spent in jail, according to a judge.

In territorial court on Wednesday, Judge Garth Malakoe found Martin Crux guilty of all three crimes and sentenced the offender to time served, as he had been in jail since July 31, 2010. Despite this, the offender, with a history of mental illness, denied committing the offences.

"I'm innocent of every criminal charge," Crux told Malakoe before being sentenced. "I was not brought up that way."

Crux, who had pleaded not guilty and had three prior assault convictions on his criminal record, said he understood how Malakoe reached his verdict, but accused the two witnesses - the sexual assault victim and the victim of the assault with a weapon and death threats - of lying, before admitting to the court he suffered "mild delusions." He cited examples of sometimes believing he is a "grand emperor" or is trained in martial arts.

Crux did not testify in the two trials on Wednesday.

The trials revealed that, while in the psychiatric ward at Stanton Hospital on April 21, 2009, Crux made unwanted physical advances on another patient. The woman, who was being treated for depression, was watching television in the ward's lounge when Crux came up to her making what she called "horny" gestures with his hands, and giving her $20. She told the court she did not know what warranted these actions, and had not met Crux before entering the ward.

She then went to the kitchen to throw out a pop can and he followed her in.

When she turned around, he put his hands up her shirt and touched her breasts over her bra, stopping when she began to cry. He was ordered to appear in court while still in the hospital. The other charges stem from an incident at an apartment building in Yellowknife, where a male employee of the building's owner, who does maintenance and move-out inspections, was vacuuming the common areas of the building at 2 p.m. on July 31, 2010.

Crux came out of his apartment while the victim was putting away the vacuum in a storage room down the hall, and then asked why he was here, to which the victim replied he was cleaning. Crux went back into his apartment, came out again moments later and, according to the victim, said he was going to "stab and kill me."

At this point, the victim told Crux he was going to call the RCMP. Crux went back into his apartment and came out a third time, with a 12-to-15 centimetre steak knife in his hand, by his side, so the victim shut himself in the storage room and called the police on his cellphone.

Crown prosecutor Duane Praught said, and Malakoe agreed, that in the context of the death threats, the Criminal Code states that coming towards someone with a weapon can be defined as assault, even if no physical harm is incurred.

"The victim was simply trying to go about his work," said Praught.

Both Praught and defence lawyer Tracy Bock asked for time served, which Malakoe agreed was fitting for the crimes.

Crux has a history of schizophrenia, and has spent time under treatment at Stanton in the '90s, as well as 2002, 2006, 2008 and 2009. He told the court his illness is getting better - the mild delusions are less severe than the schizophrenia he had struggled with for so long.

He left the courthouse Wednesday on one year of probation with requirements to attend any counselling his probation officer suggests, and to have no contact with either victim. He is also to have a DNA sample taken, and be put on the national sex offender registry for 10 years. As well, Crux must abide by a five-year firearms prohibition.

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