Kinngait man gets 8-year sentence for attempted murder
Laimiki Toonoo to remain in custody in Nunavut after judge rejects longer sentence submission
Laimiki Toonoo of Kinngait will serve the remainder of his eight years and two months sentence for attempted murder in the territory, after Justice Christian Lyons chose not to impose a longer penitentiary sentence. (Photo by Jeff Pelletier)
Laimiki Toonoo was sentenced to eight years and two months in jail Monday for the attempted murder of a woman in Kinngait four years ago.
Having already spent more than four years in custody, and because days in pre-sentence custody count as a day and a half, the 28-year-old will spend the remaining two years of his sentence incarcerated in Nunavut rather than at a southern federal penitentiary.
Toonoo and his older brother, Archie Toonoo, were both charged with attempted murder and aggravated assault in connection with the Oct. 6, 2021, attack on a woman in Kinngait.
Archie Toonoo was convicted on the aggravated assault charge but found not guilty of attempted murder. Last month, he was sentenced to three years in prison followed by two years’ probation and a 10-year firearm ban.
In September, Justice Christian Lyons found Laimiki Toonoo guilty on both charges.
In court Monday in Iqaluit, Lyons stayed the aggravated assault charge — meaning the charge is paused and could be withdrawn by the Crown after a year. In reading his decision on the attempted murder conviction, he called the attack “unprovoked and senseless.”
According to testimony during their trial, the two brothers had been intoxicated when Archie Toonoo got into an altercation with his partner. The victim was attacked by the two brothers after she attempted to defend the partner.
Laimiki Toonoo tried to use a phone charger to hang the victim and make it appear like a suicide. Archie Toonoo attempted to stop his brother, though, and called the RCMP to report that a woman was hanging.
“This incident was disturbing, to say the least,” Lyons said, adding it left a “deep emotional impact” on the victim, who suffered several physical injuries in the attack.
Laimiki Toonoo had 14 prior convictions for assault, mischief and violating court orders — all of which occurred before he was 23 years old.
Lyons described him as having been been diagnosed with multiple mental health issues, including schizophrenia and post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from sexual abuse he experienced while in school and from the deaths of his father and two brothers.
Laimiki Toonoo has had “homicidal ideations” and hallucinations which “urge him to harm others,” Lyons said.
He has also been “organized and coherent” while seeking treatment and has apologized for his actions.
Crown prosecutor Abel Dion’s submission that Laimiki Toonoo receive a 10-year sentence in federal custody was “reasonable and appropriate,” Lyons said.
However, handing down a shorter sentence that keeps him in Nunavut allowed Lyons to impose a “lengthy” probation with conditions including a requirement to report to a probation officer, abstaining from alcohol, having no contact with the victim, and committing to receiving counselling.
Before Monday’s court proceedings ended, Laimiki Toonoo rose and politely asked Lyons for a longer federal sentence.
“[I’m] tired of being in [the] same jail,” he said.
Lyons didn’t change his mind, saying he wants Laimiki Toonoo to remain under strict, lengthy probation after his release.
“Ultimately, I think that’s in your and society’s best interest,” Lyons said.
I suspect that most will comment on how the sentence is way too lenient and it is. But, what I find even more disturbing is that this case took four years to get resolved in the court system!! Four years! That kind of delay is absolutely unacceptable, and it allowed this accused to shave years off of his sentence with the remand credit.
This article reports that the accused has serious problems. These problems make it a virtual certainty that he will violently reoffend on his release from the territorial jail. The territorial jail system would have offered him no help with those problems while spending those years on remand, and no help either while he’s serving what’s left of his sentence.
As I’ve said, the record shows that this man has serious mental problems which makes him an extraordinarily high risk to reoffend. And yet this judge thinks that all of this can be managed and controlled in the community with a lengthy probation order!!! That is just fantasy, and I’m gobsmacked that the judge would think anyone in our community would buy that!! This man has proven to be unable to control his impulses and can only be controlled in some kind of secure facility. The judge’s wisdom that he can be safely managed with a lengthy probation order is simply laughable, and the community will end up paying the price. Ironically, the offender himself showed more insight and wisdom on this than the judge did when he begged the judge to sentence him to a longer federal sentence!! Unlike the judge, it seems that the accused himself has the insight to understand that he needs time in a federal facility with better programming and services for this issues he has. Unbelievable! We would have been better off if the judge had listened to the accused! Wow.
Wait, don’t we run ‘healing facilities’ in the territory? These aren’t just jails bro!
I don’t think they do bro. But, if you want to live under that illusion, all the power to you!!
We deserve to feel safe in our communities. This man should have been Bychok’d.
He tried to Bychok himself! Even he knows he needs more help than is available here.
With how frequently Bychok’s decisions have been appealed for his excessive sentences, I don’t think “getting Bychok’d” is as good as you think. I wouldn’t be shocked if it’s better high-sentence advocates to see another judge give a higher but allowable sentence than an unreasonably high Bychok sentence, given how often his decisions extended the amount of time people are in custody and getting 1.5 time until the Appeal/new trial wrapped up.
The eagerness of our non-resident appeal judges to place dangerous criminals back on our streets is a different conversation entirely.
And local defence counsel are the same people who suggested that driving bans for DUIs were racist. So I’ll take their suggestions with way more salt than suggested daily.
This reduced sentence is just one of many examples of leniency that favours the criminal at the expense of society. In Canada bail reform has led to a revolving door so that individuals accused of multiple crimes get to victimize their friends and neighbours again.
Doesn’t the community deserve better?