Baker man jailed 12 years for brutal beating death

KIRSTEN MURPHY

Jeremy Kuuk, 30, of Baker Lake was sentenced to 12 years in jail last week after pleading guilty to manslaughter in the brutal beating death of another Baker Lake man in 2001.

Samuel Nagyougalik, 40, died Oct. 2, 2001 in Baker Lake after Kuuk punched and kicked him to death in a fight over a liquor bottle.

“This is a very good sentence from the Crown’s perspective. It’s a serious sentence for manslaughter, but it fits very well with the facts,” said Crown lawyer John Solski.

Solski said the two men met along a road near Baker Lake’s Arctic College building in the early morning hours Oct. 2. Both had been drinking, he said.

The men began fighting over a liquor bottle, he said, and Kuuk laid into Nagyougalik for 20 to 30 minutes.

“Kuuk pounded [Nagyougalik] a number of times in the head. When the victim fell to the ground, Kuuk continued beating him with in excess of 10 kicks to the head,” Solski said.

Police found Nagyougalik’s disfigured, lifeless body along the side of the road at around 3:30 a.m, and arrested Kuuk less than 24 hours later.

Defence lawyer Michael Chandler did not dispute the facts.

Crime scene photos by Cpl. Harry Harding, an RCMP forensic identification specialist, were admitted as evidence. Police statements from three witnesses were used to piece together the evening’s events.

Solski said that Judge Rene Foisy said in court that “in his 23 years on the bench, this was the most brutal beating he’d seen.”

Kuuk was originally charged with second degree murder, but the Crown accepted a guilty plea to the lesser charge of manslaughter.

Kuuk’s criminal record, which includes an aggravated assault conviction in 1999, was admitted as evidence.

“His record and the brutality of the beating were aggravating factors,” Solski said.

Family members of the victim and the accused attended the Oct. 29 sentencing, Solski said.