Nunavut man who killed uncle receives five-year jail sentence

An Iqaluit man who beat his uncle to death in 2011 was given a five-year sentence for manslaughter at the Nunavut Court of Justice May 27.

Because of time he’s already served while waiting for the court to deal with the charge, he has about a year and a half left to serve.

Alec Petooloosie, 24, killed his 36-year-old uncle, Mathew Petooloosie, on Dec. 12, 2011, using his fists and a hollow aluminum broom handle — ultimately causing fatal trauma to the brain.

The men were highly intoxicated when the fight between them broke out.

Petooloosie pleaded guilty to the manslaughter charge in April 2013.

But at a sentence hearing last week Crown prosecutor Paul Bychok called the beating “close to near murder.”

Defence lawyer Glen Wilson said, however, that Petooloosie only wanted to “beat up Mathew, not kill him.”

An agreed statement of facts read in court said the bloody attack lasted about 30 minutes. A forensic pathologist who examined the victim’s dead body found there were no fewer than 76 injuries on his body.

Bychok requested a sentence of between 10 and 13 years in prison. Wilson asked for five.

In the end, Justice Earl Johnson sided with the defence.

Johnson, who gave an oral judgment May 27, gave Petooloosie credit for pre-trial custody — he’s been in prison since his arrest in January 2012 — meaning Petooloosie will only serve another 18 months in prison.

Petooloosie was also given a 10-year firearms prohibition, a three-year probation period after he serves out his prison sentence and was ordered to submit a blood sample that will be stored in a national DNA database.