Cape Dorset fugitive pleads guilty to assault and firearms charges

A Cape Dorset man, David Mikkigak, who hid from police last summer, is sentenced to 27 months in a federal prison after he pleaded guilty to assault and firearms charges. He will serve 13 months after time already served. (FILE PHOTO)

A Cape Dorset man who hid from the police for more than two months last summer will spend 13 months in a federal jail after he pleaded guilty to charges that include assault causing bodily harm and carrying a firearm when prohibited.

David Mikkigak was sentenced to 27 months by Nunavut Judge Bonnie Tulloch on June 20 during circuit court in the man’s Baffin community of about 1,440. After getting time and a half credit for time already served awaiting his sentence, he has 13 months left.

Mikkigak, a repeat offender, has been in custody since Sept. 22 when he “surrendered peacefully,” police said, after avoiding apprehension by hiding in a cabin outside Cape Dorset.

At that time he was on probation orders, which banned him from driving a vehicle or vessel and from using a firearm.

Mikkigak is charged with two separate assaults causing bodily harm to the same person, one breach of a firearms prohibition, one count of driving while prohibited and two breaches of a probation order to “keep the peace and be of good behaviour.”

Other charges, among them unlawful confinement and discharging a firearm, are stayed.

Because he pleaded guilty, there was no trial. He was granted time and a half for time already served. This leaves a remaining 13 months in his sentence.

According to court documents, the first assault took place early in the morning on June 25, 2017.

An agreed statement of facts between the Crown and the defence says that Mikkigak punched his partner in the head multiple times, pulled her hair and pushed her to the ground.

Photos of the victim in the court file show a bloodied face and clothing, a cut eyebrow and bruises on the person’s back, shoulders and head.

“Ever since this happened I get scared easily … I’m afraid to go out … always watching my back,” a victim impact statement reads. “He said a while ago that he would get someone to break my dad’s belongings.”

Alcohol was involved in the assault.

In an interview found in his court file, Mikkigak admitted to being an alcoholic.

“He stated that when he drinks he gets into trouble with the law. But when he is sober he enjoys going out on the land hunting for animals to provide for his family,” that interview reads.

Mikkigak served five territorial sentences between 2001 and 2007. Between 2008 and 2015 he served another five territorial sentences and one federal sentence.

That same interview shows Mikkigak is a carver by trade, who works intermittently at the hamlet of Cape Dorset as a water and sewage truck helper. He is adopted, and has 14 siblings. He suffers from significant hearing loss. He has a Grade 8 education.

After the assault, Mikkigak fled the community, and between June 25 and Sept. 22 he was “on the land and avoided apprehension,” the agreed statement of facts reads.

On July 1 Mikkigak went to a cabin owned by his partner’s family. The second assault took place sometime between July 1 and July 18.

On Aug. 13 that woman’s father and others saw Mikkigak operating a small aluminum boat while they were returning from a boating trip.

While on the land, Mikkigak had a .300 calibre rifle.

In August last year, RCMP asked the public for help locating Mikkigak after he was alleged to have fired shots at a boat.

Police got help from a Transport Canada Dash 7 surveillance aircraft to locate Mikkigak.

Two women were staying at the cabin with Mikkigak and they surrendered earlier on the same day that Mikkigak was arrested last fall.