Jail time for Tulita double-stabber
Nineteen-year-old schizophrenic has hazy memory of attack
Daniel Campbell
Northern News Services
Published Monday, October 14, 2013
TULITA/FORT NORMAN
No one seems to know why Kevin Kenny stabbed a young man and woman in their cabin this past April.
A psychiatric report on Kenny, 19, stated while the young man was mentally fit to stand trial, his motivations were unclear.
"His actions appear to be strangely out of character," said defence lawyer Serge Petitpas.
Kenny pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated assault on Aug. 19. He was sentenced in Yellowknife Supreme Court on Oct. 2.
On the evening of April 21, Kenny knocked on the door of a cabin in Tulita.
A young man and woman were inside playing video games. The woman answered the door and Kenny asked her if her brother was home. When the woman said no, Kenny left.
Less than five minutes later, Kenny returned. When the woman answered the door again, Kenny forced his way in, brandishing a skinning knife and stabbing her twice in the shoulder.
Kenny continued his attack as the woman ran screaming to the bedroom.
The woman's boyfriend tried to defend her, so Kenny turned his attention to him. The man was stabbed four times in the top and rear of his head and three times in his abdomen and chest.
"You ruined my life!" screamed Kenny as he slashed, the court heard.
Kenny, who has no prior criminal record, takes medication for schizophrenia.
In a pre-sentencing report, he stated he doesn't drink and has never been drunk. Kenny doesn't attribute his actions that night to voices in his head.
When asked why he attacked the young couple by the writer of the pre-sentencing report, Kenny replied, "I don't know. I freaked out for some reason."
Kenny added sometimes he blacks out, saying he "loses time."
A psychiatric report, prepared on July 9, declared Kenny fit to stand trial. In the report, Kenny was asked about his memory of the attack.
"Whenever I think about it, it's like a blur," he said.
Crown prosecutor Marc Lecorre said Kenny's moral blameworthiness was "very high," saying his attack was relentless.
"He's lucky he didn't kill (the victim)," Lecorre said.
Both lawyers agreed Kenny should face a sentence of anywhere from 20 months to two years in jail. The maximum sentence for aggravated assault is 14 years in prison.
Justice Shannon Smallwood agreed, giving Kenny 23 months in jail, minus the five and a half months he has already spent in jail.
Smallwood also gave Kenny two years of probation, forbidding him to contact the victims. He was also ordered to advise his probation officer within 24 hours if he ever stops taking his medication for schizophrenia.
Both victims wrote letters to the court, explaining how the assault has changed their lives.
"I'm scared all the time," the woman stated. "If I had it my way, I would hide from the world."
The woman wrote she'd leave Tulita if Kenny ever came back there.
"I can't explain how I feel about him," wrote the man. "I can still remember the look in his eyes, like he wanted to do more than hurt us."
