Iqaluit man gets 12-year sentence for attempted murder, forcible confinement

Updated on Thursday, Feb. 22, 2024 at 2:15 p.m.

An Iqaluit man was handed a 12-year sentence for the 2020 attempted murder of a young woman and forcible confinement of two other people.

Mosesee Nakashook, 54, appeared emotional and tearful in an Iqaluit courtroom Tuesday afternoon as Chief Justice Neil Sharkey read his sentencing decision aloud.

At a previous appearance, Nakashook pleaded guilty to the charges.

According to the facts Sharkey presented, Nakashook attacked the victim with a meat cleaver while she and two others were visiting his apartment early on Feb. 9, 2020.

The fact that the victim was a vulnerable Indigenous woman warranted a harsher sentence, Sharkey said.

Crown prosecutor Stephanie Boydell and Nakashook’s defence lawyer, Alison Crowe, jointly submitted that Nakashook should serve seven years.

Court was told Nakashook had been drinking heavily in the hours before the attack. At one point, the victim had refused to have sex with him.

Mosesee Nakashook received a 12-year sentence in an Iqaluit courtoom Tuesday after pleading guilty to attempted murder and forcible confinement. (File photo / RCMP handout)

After the attack, he confined the woman and the two others — a man and a woman — in a bedroom and took away their phones so they couldn’t call for help.

However, they were able to escape through a window and get to hospital in a taxi. Nakashook was arrested the next day.

Sharkey described the images of the victim as the “worst [he has] ever seen.”

As a result, Sharkey placed the images under a sealed order preventing them from being released unless the court lifts the ban.

The attack left the victim with “severe lacerations,” requiring more than 100 stitches and multiple blood transfusions.

“I just want my skull back,” Sharkey read from her impact statement, stating that she had been “scalped” in the attack.

The two people Nakashook had confined escaped without injuries, though Nakashook had threatened to kill them.

Sharkey also shed light on Nakashook’s personal circumstances, describing him as someone who “has been behind the eight ball” his entire life.

As a teenager in Kimmirut, Nakashook was abused by a teacher. In his later teens, Nakashook became addicted to drugs and alcohol and was expelled from school.

Sharkey outlined a period of Nakashook’s life from his late teens to early 40s when he was in and out of jail and unable to secure housing and employment. Eventually, he did find stability with housing.

Nakashook has been in jail since his arrest four years ago. The COVID-19 pandemic caused his trial to be delayed and brought on additional health-related restrictions while he was in custody.

However, over the past four years, Sharkey said, Nakashook “has been extremely productive” while in custody. He has undergone addiction and mental health counselling, been active with the inmate community and participated in work programs.

In his final remarks on sentencing, Sharkey said seven years, as suggested by the lawyers, was not enough jail time and would represent a “breakdown of the system.”

The sentence of 12 years includes 10 years for the attempted murder and two years for the forcible confinement charges to be served consecutively.

For his progress while in custody, Sharkey gave Nakashook 1.5 days of remand credit for each day he has served. Using that formula, Sharkey counted the more than four years Nakashook has already spent in jail as equal to just over six years.

That means Nakashook still has just under six years left to serve on his sentence.

Typically, sentences of more than two years on federal crimes are to be served in a penitentiary in the south.

Sharkey recommended Nakashook serve the remainder of his sentence at the Aaqqigiarvik Correctional Healing Facility in Iqaluit; however, that decision lies with the Correctional Service of Canada.

Before escorting Nakashook to the cells after proceedings ended, court sheriffs allowed him to hug two family members who showed up to witness the end of his case.

Clarification – This article has been altered from its originally published version to delete a paragraph that included unclear information about how it is determined where a person who is sentenced to jail or prison will serve that sentence.