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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The testimony of a 13-year-old girl helped convict a 33-year-old man who touched her in a sexual manner.

Sentencing for Derek Jason Sangris, who has a manslaughter conviction in his record, is set for Feb. 18.

Derek Jason Sangris, 33, was convicted Wednesday of sexually touching a 13-year-old girl. Territorial court Judge Bernadette Schmaltz has scheduled his sentencing for Feb. 18. Sangris was convicted of manslaughter in 2003 for the stabbing death of Eddie Paul Beyonnie and was sentenced to five years in prison. - NNSL file photo

The court heard from four Crown witnesses Wednesday. The victim, sitting behind a screen in the courtoom, explained what happened in the early morning hours of June 24, 2012.

She said she had been sleeping at home in her bed, when "I had woken up to someone touching me."

She said a person started moving his fingers over her stomach and arm.

"At the time, I had no clue (who it was) and it really shocked me."

After what she described as a few minutes, the 13-year-old sat up in bed and the person ran out of the room.

The girl said she ran to her older sister's room, told her what happened, and they both ran downstairs to tell their mother.

The mother testified in court Wednesday as well, saying she was up around 3 a.m. listening to music when someone knocked on the door of her Yellowknife residence. She looked through the peephole and recognized the man as Sangris, opened the door and said Sangris asked to use the bathroom.

"I felt it was disrespectful and inappropriate to show up at someone's house to use the bathroom," she told the court, but decided to accommodate him because he was pleading and he was an acquaintance of the family's.

After he went to the bathroom, she said they chatted for a few minutes and she smelled alcohol on him.

He then used the bathroom a second time. Shortly afterwards both of the woman's daughters came downstairs and told her about the incident in the younger daughter's room. The mother locked the girls in the laundry room and went upstairs, where she found Sangris hunched over the toilet, but there were no signs that he had been sick. The mother told him to get out and he walked downstairs, put on his shoes and left.

The mother called the police, got her daughters from the laundry room and comforted them.

"My mom comforted, talked to me, hugging me, saying it would be OK," said the 13-year-old.

The girls went upstairs to the 13-year-old's room where they found a black leather wallet by the bed. They went downstairs and handed the wallet to their mother, who said she opened it and saw an identification card with Sangris' picture and name.

Sangris was arrested several days later after police contacted him by e-mail and informed him he could pick up his wallet at the RCMP detachment.

Sangris sat at the defence table Wednesday, wearing glasses, a green T-shirt, grey sweatpants and sock feet. He hung his head as witness after witness described the night of the incident. Sangris said nothing in court and the defence did not call any witnesses.

Judge Bernadette Schmaltz said the 13-year-old was a "very careful witness" and that she "didn't exaggerate.

"All of the evidence fits together," she said, adding she was "confident beyond a reasonable doubt" that Sangris touched the girl for a sexual purpose.

He is being held in jail while awaiting his sentence.

Sangris was convicted of manslaughter in 2003 for the stabbing death of Eddie Paul Beyonnie and was sentenced to five years in prison.

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