Woman sentenced for using car, knife as weapons

A woman charged with assaulting another woman with a car and a knife was sentenced to more than two years behind bars in Brandon provincial court on Thursday.

“(The) incident is disturbing from many aspects,” Judge John Combs said. “It includes driving a vehicle in a manner that is appropriately described as very dangerous and disturbing, and using that vehicle as a weapon and attempting to obviously cause serious harm, or worse.”

Margaret McKay, 25, previously pleaded guilty to two counts of assault with a weapon, one count each of dangerous driving and impaired driving, and three counts of breaching court orders. She also pleaded guilty Thursday to contempt of court for not showing up to testify as a witness in a trial.

Crown attorney Rich Lonstrup outlined the facts behind the charges.

On April 19, McKay, who was under the influence of alcohol, attempted to hit a woman with a car in downtown Brandon. While she didn’t make contact, she tried again, this time knocking the victim to the ground.

Lonstrup said the victim “miraculously” didn’t sustain any injuries from the hit.

McKay then stabbed the victim with a knife three times, but the victim didn’t seek medical attention, so Lonstrup said the court has to presume “shallow, superficial or near-to-non-existent” wounds.

Still, he said, it’s an aggravating factor that McKay tried to stab her three times, showing that it wasn’t a “spur of the moment lashing out.”

“She was devoted, it appears, to cause egregious bodily harm,” Lonstrup said.

Also aggravating is the fact that she tried to flee the scene and ended up driving the wrong way down Rosser Avenue, he said.

“So now, we’re not just dealing with (the victim),” he said. “Think about the number of drivers put at risk. People driving the correct way down Rosser aren’t going to be accustomed to opposing directional traffic.”

When police arrested McKay, she told them the victim “had it coming,” the court heard.

Lonstrup gave McKay credit for pleading guilty to serious charges early on and said she has been upfront about her actions. He said McKay could have “rolled the dice” and taken the matter to trial, noting that there was some difficulty in getting hold of the victim, who is also the key witness.

The Crown proposed a total sentence of three years, with the assault with a weapon (vehicle) making up the bulk of it at roughly 20 months.

Defence lawyer Anthony Dawson countered with a proposed sentence in the range of a year and a half to two years less a day.

He said McKay was remorseful of her actions and acknowledged what she did was wrong, adding that she even wrote a letter apologizing to the victim.

Dawson said McKay’s life growing up wasn’t easy. She faced “serious abuse” and didn’t have contact with her father until she was already an adult, he said.

Addiction has been an issue for McKay since she was in her early teens. Dawson said she acknowledged that alcohol was a significant factor in her offending and that she has been addicted to illicit drugs as well, the court heard.

However, Dawson said she’s aware of her addiction and has made attempts at going sober in the past as well as participated in programming while in custody.

“Certainly, anyone attempting to stab someone or hit someone with a vehicle is always going to be serious,” he said. “This is an instance where the complainant suffered no injury, so it would be at the lesser end of the seriousness range.”

Combs said the appropriate sentence would be somewhere in between the lawyer’s recommendations and decided on a sentence just shy of two years and two months.

McKay has served the equivalent of just under six months, leaving her with a go-forward sentence of 22 months.

The judge also included an 18-month period of probation, a three-year driving prohibition, a 10-year firearms prohibition and that she provide a sample of her DNA.

» sanderson@brandonsun.com