Vietnam vet imprisoned for stabbing friend

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This article was published 29/04/2023 (1069 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Westman Vietnam veteran was sentenced to five years in prison after a jury found him guilty of attempted murder and aggravated assault for stabbing his friend in the neck during a drunken fight at a holiday gathering in 2019.

Court of King’s Bench Justice John Menzies decided on the fate of David Hodson on Thursday afternoon, after hearing split submissions on the length of the sentence for the 81-year-old.

Crown attorney Brett Rach asked the court for a nine-year prison term, while defence lawyer Andrew Synyshyn submitted that his client be sentenced to no more than three to four years.

In court, Rach outlined the following evidence surrounding the stabbing.

On Dec. 30, 2019, Hodson attended an Edrans, Man., home, northeast of Carberry, for a holiday gathering with friends. Hodson and the two others would regularly socialize, and what was supposed to be a holiday celebration transformed into something much different.

During the evening, the three friends drank alcohol and at one point, Hodson became aggressive. A fight broke out between Hodson and one of his friends, a 56-year-old man.

The fight took them to the ground, where the man grabbed Hodson’s wrist and bent it forward until Hodson tapped the ground, submitting the fight to be over. The man let Hodson go, but as Hodson rose, he pushed his adversary. His friend now on all fours, Hodson poked him twice in the neck with a knife.

The victim told Hodson that using a knife would ruin his life and that he would go to jail. The next thing he remembers is lying on the floor by the television while Hodson stabbed him in the neck. While the victim said he didn’t feel the knife, he recalled seeing Hodson twisting it.

As the wounded man crawled into the kitchen, calling for help, Hodson followed and flipped the victim over onto his back. As the victim tried to hold Hodson off, Hodson cut his thumb and his neck again.

A third person who arrived at the home around 10:30 p.m. saw the victim lying on the floor with Hodson’s arm around his neck trying to choke him.

The witness heard Hodson taunting the victim and tell a woman who was in the home to tell police that he was acting in self-defence. The witness provided first aid to the victim until emergency services arrived.

The victim was airlifted to hospital and given two units of blood on the way. The victim had to have his bloodstained clothes cut off his body by hospital staff, and his neck had to be stitched back together. He was in the hospital for four days.

Rach also read the man’s victim impact statement to the court, in which the man said he was traumatized by the December evening incident. He said he has trouble shaving due to his injuries and is self-conscious about his scars. However, Rach noted that during the trial, there was no ill-will between Hodson and the victim, and he cited their friendship as a reason for it.

That sentiment was on display during sentencing when Hodson apologized to the victim.

“I’m really sorry for what’s happened to you, I want you to know that,” Hodson said.

“I forgave you … a long time ago,” the victim replied from the gallery.

In asking Menzies to impose a nine-year sentence, Rach cited the seriousness of an attempted murder conviction and pointed to Hodson’s prior convictions for assault in 1996 and 1998, an uttering threat conviction in 1999 and an aggravated assault conviction in 2002.

“The only difference between attempt to commit murder and committing murder is the consequence that the victim did not die,” Rach said. “Mr. Hodson is the lucky murderer.”

Though the jury convicted Hodson of attempted murder, in his submissions Synyshyn maintained that his client could have acted out of self-defence, as it isn’t known what evidence the jury relied on to convict Hodson.

In Canadian law, after a trial, jurors are not allowed to tell anyone else about the discussions that took place in the jury room.

Synyshyn also focused on his client’s advanced age as a consideration in sentencing, which courts must consider. He called the Crown’s recommendation of nine years a “death sentence” for his client.

“It’s not like someone who is 25 years old, who is sentenced to eight, nine years in jail, can come out after parole and [in] a few years, rebuild and still have a fruitful life,” the defence lawyer said. “This is someone whose everyday counts.”

Synyshyn said his client has struggled with alcoholism in the past, but since the events in 2019, his client has been sober. He also spoke about Hodson’s background, how he lost his Métis culture as a result of being adopted by a white family at a young age and how two tours of duty in the Vietnam war with the U.S. military left him with a post-traumatic stress disorder diagnosis. Hodson also lost his daughter in a car crash in 1988, after which his marriage fell apart, and he suffers from glaucoma and has a prostate cancer diagnosis.

Menzies noted the impact of Hodson’s actions on the victim, who is left with long scars on his neck that remind him of that evening. He also noted Hodson’s background as a veteran with military training in the use of firearms and knives. The judge said an attempted murder conviction is serious, and the court has a wide range for what sentence can be imposed, from a suspended sentence to life behind bars.

Ultimately, Menzies handed Hodson a five-year prison sentence and a 10-year firearm ban.

“The age of the accused can be taken into account, but it’s not a complete defence,” the judge said. “He still has to pay for the offence of which he was convicted.”

» gmortfield@brandonsun.com