Offender gets jail time, 7-Eleven ban

A 19-year-old man who was sentenced for multiple assault charges and fleeing a police officer told a provincial court judge he’s remorseful and plans to turn his life around.

“I’m really sorry and I haven’t run from what I did,” Sunny Ranville-bird said in a Brandon courtroom on Friday.

“I still have a lot of life ahead of me and I have a daughter and a little boy on the way, and another daughter, and I want to be with them,” he said.

Court heard Ranville-bird pleaded guilty earlier this year to assault, assault causing bodily harm, flight from a police officer and being a participant in a group assault with a weapon against an inmate in jail.

The first two offences happened on Feb. 28 when Brandon police responded to separate incidents involving an assault at a house party and a vehicle that sped from officers after a passenger had fallen from an SUV door.

Crown attorney Caroline Lacey said the accused consumed alcohol at a residence on Eighth Street and witnessed a fight between his female friend and another woman. He saw a man step in to break up the fight and perceived it as two people teaming up against his friend.

Ranville-bird tackled the man to the floor and punched him in the face before he noticed another woman was recording the fight on her phone, Lacey said.

“He then approached her, pushed her to the ground and punched her as well,” she said.

Later that day, Brandon police saw a brown GMC Terrain rapidly reverse from its parking spot at 7-Eleven on Willowdale Crescent with a woman hanging out of the front passenger door.

The woman was left in the parking lot as the driver, later identified as Ranville-bird, fled north on 26th Street in the southbound lane.

He ran several stop signs and red lights while speeding during the police chase, “which would have put a number of people at risk in the community with that manner of driving,” Lacey said.

On March 14, police attended a 7-Eleven location in Brandon and spoke with three men who said they were approached by a man they thought was carrying a knife, Lacey said.

The suspect punched one of the men in the face, causing him to chip a tooth, she said.

Police reviewed video surveillance that led them to speak with the mother of a woman who left the scene with the suspect identified as Ranville-bird.

When police arrested him, he said the men called him a “bitch” and complimented his girlfriend at the time before motioning to punch him, she said.

“And so, he acted from his view in response to that,” Lacey said.

The most recent offence happened on April 1 around 10 p.m. when Ranville-bird participated in a group assault against a man at the Brandon Correctional Centre.

“The accused kicked, punched and hit the victim in numerous places on his body, and one of them had a weapon that had a sock with a few batteries in it,” the Crown said.

The victim’s injuries included a black eye, a cut on his ring finger, a partially fractured nose and bumps on his head.

Lacey said there’s little evidence of who used the weapon because video surveillance didn’t capture the jail assault from inside the cell.

“Obviously there’s an extremely concerning pattern of violence that we’re seeing here,” she said.

Lacey suggested Ranville-bird be sentenced to a total of 510 days minus 140 days of credit for time served, with an additional 10-year weapons prohibition and 18 months of supervised probation.

Defence lawyer Myles Davis said he was seeking 140 days total for the assault and flight from a police officer, followed by a one-year conditional sentence to be served in the community by completing rehabilitative programming.

Davis noted Ranville-bird had at least six family members in the courtroom — many of whom wiped tears from their eyes during the hearing — that were willing to house and support him if released.

Court heard the accused is grieving three deceased family members, including his sister who died on Sunday. He is suspected of having fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, has an IQ score lower than 70 and is considered a vulnerable person with an intellectual disability, Davis said.

He said Ranville-bird was peer-pressured into participating in the four-on-one jail assault and had older inmates trying to convince him to confess to acts he didn’t do.

Since then, he has been transferred to the Headingly Correctional Centre, where he’s been able to attend programming.

Ranville-bird had a difficult childhood and experienced family violence, abuse and multiple foster placements in Child and Family Services that “failed” him, Davis said.

He said his client is committed to focusing on his children and understands that if he failed to abide by conditions proposed with the conditional sentence, he would be required to serve the remaining time in jail.

Judge Patrick Sullivan reviewed the aggravating and mitigating factors, including the accused’s traumatic upbringing, but explained that he didn’t believe Ranville-bird could comply with a conditional sentence.

He imposed a 380-day sentence minus time served, including a 10-year weapons prohibition and two years of supervised probation, with conditions to participate in counselling as directed and not attend any 7-Eleven stores in Brandon.

“I want to recognize this isn’t the outcome I know that you were hoping for, Mr. Ranville-bird, but there is a light at the end of this tunnel, and you will be released at some stage,” Sullivan said.

“What is essential, I think, for your well-being and for your success in the community, which is ultimately in the community’s best interest, is your recovery.”

Ranville-bird will spend 240 more days in jail.

» tadamski@brandonsun.com