Woman gets 60 days in jail for assaulting Brandon homeowner

A First Nation woman has been sentenced to 60 days in jail for assaulting a homeowner after she woke up under a gazebo in his backyard.

Angel Shingoose, 33, pleaded guilty on Monday in Brandon provincial court to assaulting the man on June 2, as well as failing to attend court and report to probation services.

Brandon police received a complaint from a man around 6:30 a.m. about how he came home from work to find a woman he didn’t know sleeping in his backyard on 12th Street, said Crown attorney Sarah Kok.

The homeowner, who recorded part of the interaction on his cellphone, asked her to leave his yard several times, but she refused, Kok said.

“She ultimately asks (the man) if she could take his cellphone and then punches him in the face at least three times before she leaves the property,” she said.

The man didn’t have any serious medical injuries and provided a description of Shingoose to police, who were able to locate her two blocks away on Louise Avenue.

She was arrested and later released on an undertaking, Kok said.

“This is a concerning incident because it’s a completely unprovoked, random attack on a stranger,” she said.

“One can only imagine the fear of arriving home after a day at work, going into your yard and locating an unknown person passed out.”

Kok said the woman’s violent behaviour is alarming, despite her explanation of being “blackout drunk” and having no recollection of the assault.

Shingoose also failed to report to probation between April and May and failed to attend court on July 8. Brandon police arrested her on Aug. 4 at the City Centre Hotel, Kok said.

The Crown said Shingoose has prior convictions for failing to attend court and reporting to probation, so she should receive a harsher punishment for these offences. Kok suggested a 100-day sentence for all three charges.

Defence lawyer Bob Harrison disagreed, saying his client’s sentence should be lower.

He said Shingoose has had a tough life and is a single mother to four children. She remembers “absolutely nothing” of the assault and was under the influence of alcohol and the prescription drug gabapentin.

Harrison said Shingoose told probation services she had plans to move to Waywayseecappo First Nation, but when that fell through, she didn’t follow up with an officer, which resulted in a breach. Shingoose also missed her court date because she didn’t have transportation, he said.

Shingoose has received treatment to manage her addictions in the past and is interested in attending various programming in the future, Harrison said.

Court heard Shingoose, who appeared by video from the Brandon Correctional Centre, say she has no memory of the incident but believes she punched the man in the front yard instead. She told Judge Patrick Sullivan she felt remorseful.

While the judge said he empathized with her past and was optimistic about her desire to change, he encouraged Shingoose to stay sober for the sake of her children.

“When I was listening to the lawyers, I was asking myself, ‘Who’s parenting these four little kids while you’re blackout drunk?’” he said.

“What future are you setting your children up for?”

Shingoose received 60 days for the assault and 10 days each for failing to attend court and report to probation.

She had 21 days of enhanced credit for time served, leaving her with a remaining sentence of 59 days in jail.

Sullivan sentenced her to an additional two years of unsupervised probation with conditions not to possess any weapons and not to contact the homeowner or be within 10 metres of his residence, work or place of worship.

» tadamski@brandonsun.com