Man receives 5 years for role in shooting

One of three men charged in connection with a shooting at a Brandon motel in 2024 has been sentenced to more than five years behind bars.

Stuart Nabess, 27, pleaded guilty in Brandon’s Court of King’s Bench on Friday to the charge of intentionally discharging a firearm while being reckless as to whether another person was present inside the building.

Clayton Nabess, 50, and Kristian Bruce, 25, have been charged with several firearm offences in relation to the shooting. Their charges are before the court, and both men remain innocent until proven guilty.

The Crown and defence jointly recommended a sentence of five years and five days. Nabess has already spent the equivalent of approximately 37 months in custody.

Both lawyers agreed to add an extra five days to the five-year sentence to ensure Nabess had a go-forward sentence of at least two years, allowing him to serve the remainder of his sentence in the penitentiary rather than jail, which was the offender’s request.

Crown attorney Rich Lonstrup detailed the facts of the offence.

Nabess, along with Clayton and Bruce, went to the Little Chalet Motel on June 20, 2024, Lonstrup said. Clayton was angry at a woman, whom the Crown described as his ex-partner or on-and-off girlfriend, as she was at one of the chalets “partying” with other people, he said.

Clayton approached the group and got into an argument, court heard. When the argument started to get “heated,” someone inside the chalet had what looked like a firearm and “gestured with it” from the other side of the window, Lonstrup said.

Clayton appeared to “signal” back to the car, where Nabess and Bruce were, he said.

“Whether it’s agreed it was a signal or not, it was at that moment Stuart Nabess and Kristian Bruce produced hidden … prohibited firearms and discharged them through the picture window of the chalet,” the Crown said.

“Two shots are known. They then immediately got in the vehicle and left, disposed of the firearms in a bush and retreated to another residence,” Lonstrup said.

The three men were arrested shortly after.

Lonstrup said one of the firearms police recovered from the nearby bush was a sawed-off, pump-action shotgun and the other was a sawed-off, semi-automatic shotgun.

“We know they had to have been brought in advance to this particular incident,” he said. “I get the impression that the guns were brought along in case somebody else started trouble, but it’s not a good reason to do it at all.”

Lonstrup said there were several mitigating factors, including the man’s minimal criminal record and the fact that he pleaded guilty.

While the matter was caught on video, Lonstrup said the camera was far enough away that it would have been difficult to tell who did the shooting, although two men could be seen brandishing firearms.

Lonstrup said it’s not a mitigating factor that someone on the other side of the window appeared to have a gun, but it can be said that the other parties “didn’t exactly come with clean hands.”

“That said, there were other occupants in the room who did not produce a firearm, and they were put in tremendous danger,” Lonstrup said.

Defence lawyer Myles Davis said his client dropped out of high school in Grade 10 and began working, where he was exposed to a “significant” amount of alcohol and substance use. He began to use substances, and his addiction got progressively worse over the years, leading to the offence, Davis said.

Nabess, who is of Métis descent, has Gladue factors, including that he has grandparents who went to residential school.

While in custody, Davis said Nabess has been going to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings as often as he can and has completed several programs.

He said he has been sober for several years now and has had time to reflect.

Davis said Nabess hopes to work on his education while in the penitentiary, as there was difficulty securing a proper teacher at Brandon Correctional Centre.

Justice Scott Abel said the joint recommendation was appropriate and that while denunciation and deterrence are the primary sentencing objectives, rehabilitation can’t be ignored, specifically noting the offender’s age and minimal criminal record.

“This incident does not have to be a defining moment of your life,” Abel said. “There’s obviously a lot of positive that you can bring to yourself (and) to your family, given the steps you’ve already taken, so I’m hopeful that those steps will continue.”

Nabess has a sentence of around two years going forward.

» sanderson@brandonsun.com