Nunavut judge says Colin Makpah not a lost cause

Colin Makpah, seen here in April 2014, will serve a federal prison sentence of 41 months for the stabbing death of DJ Gamble in Rankin Inlet in 2010. (FILE PHOTO)

Acknowledging that the drawn-out court process has been a major stress on the victim’s family, whose wounds will never quite heal, Justice Neil Sharkey sentenced Colin Makpah to 41 months in prison Sept. 9 for manslaughter, saying Makpah’s chances of rehabilitation are good.

The sentence comes five years after Makpah stabbed Donald James (DJ) Gamble to death in Rankin Inlet in 2010 after a drinking party turned sour.

“This court understands that from the perspective of a grieving family member… no amount of jail can possibly equal what has been taken from them or replace what has been lost,” Sharkey said in his oral sentencing at the Nunavut Court of Justice in Iqaluit.

Six members of Gamble’s family sat in the courtroom gallery, while more listened in over speaker phone.

On the other side of the gallery sat Makpah with his mother and step-father.

“Colin will return to his family after he serves his sentence. DJ, however, is gone from the Gamble family, forever,” Sharkey said.

“Colin knows this, but all he can do about it is put his head down, and serve his time with dignity.”

Sharkey sentenced Makpah to a 4-year prison term Sept. 9 after convicting Makpah of manslaughter for acting in “excessive self-defence” on Aug. 14, 2010.

That’s the night Makpah stabbed Gamble four times in the torso during a fight that Sharkey called nothing more than a “glorified wrestling match.”

Sharkey also sentenced Makpah to four months of prison, to be served consecutively, for breaking a court probation order that night by drinking alcohol.

Makpah was “by no means drunk” that night, Sharkey said, but Makpah’s own awareness that alcohol use “can lead to stupid and dangerous results, is relevant.”

Sharkey also gave Makpah an 11-month enhanced credit for time already served in custody.

“So starting today, the sentence you will serve is 41 months,” Sharkey said to Makpah, who stood facing the judge with a shaved head and wearing a grey hoodie and grey slacks.

The sentencing of Makpah ends a five-year ordeal for the Gamble family, which included a three-week trial that required heightened security as emotions, at times, boiled over.

“The criminal court process is itself a major stress upon families,” Sharkey said, addressing the Gambles.

The court, the judge said, has “failed the Gamble family by taking the five years it has taken to complete this case… I should’ve insisted upon stricter time lines.”

And while Sharkey agreed with Gamble’s sister when, during her victim impact statement, she told the court the wound left by her brother’s death would never heal, Sharkey also found Colin showed “true and real remorse, true and real sorrow,” for killing Gamble.

In coming to his decision, Sharkey said Makpah’s prospects for rehabilitation are “good,” and after serving his sentence, Makpah will likely, “resume as a solid family man and a productive member of society.”

Some members of Gamble’s family in the gallery shook their heads emphatically and others cried while Sharkey spoke of his belief in Makpah’s rehabilitation.

“I am confident Colin will accept his sentence and serve a federal penitentiary sentence with dignity,” Sharkey said.

But Sharkey found Makpah’s “moral culpability” — the degree of moral blame, as compared to other cases — “high” in Gamble’s death.

That’s because Makpah, although not the initial aggressor on the night Gamble died, chose to confront Gamble with a knife, even though Gamble’s level of violence up to that point was on what Sharkey called the “minor end of the scale.”

And Makpah chose to break a court probation order by drinking that night, which Sharkey said “impaired” Makpah’s judgement.

Sharkey said his sentence must address “the inclination of people, particularly young men, to reach for knives in situations that do not call for it.”

“The point needs to be made… that bringing a knife into a scuffle or a fight at a party is something that will attract a federal term of imprisonment.”

There is no minimum sentence for manslaughter convictions when no firearm is used, so sentences are handed down by comparing the facts of the case with other manslaughter cases.

On the extreme end of manslaughter sentences, Sharkey said, are spousal manslaughter cases where sentences of 13 and 14 years have been handed down in Nunavut in recent years.

On the lower end of the scale — three years or less — are cases where an accused, say, has been a long-term victim of family violence.

Besides believing in Makpah’s remorse and chances of rehabilitation, Sharkey said Makpah’s relatively young age of 31 is also a mitigating factor.

After Sharkey delivered his decision, Gamble family members stood in long tearful embraces with each other.

As court officers led Makpah away, the prisoner asked if he could say goodbye to his family.

“Sure, but over the railing,” the officer replied, and Makpah hugged and talked in whispers with his family.

Defence lawyer Shayne Kert asked Sharkey if Makpah could be housed in the Beaver Creek Institution in Gravenhurst, Ontario.

Sharkey said he would pass on that request.