Neck slasher gets three years' hard time
Published Tuesday November 3rd, 2009
SAINT JOHN - Inside the hallway of provincial court, family members and supporters watched as Corey James Johnston was led from the courtroom by sheriff deputies. They hugged as he disappeared into a prisoner's elevator that would take him down to the cells at City Hall before beginning his three-year penitentiary term.
Johnston was one of two men involved in a disturbing uptown Aug. 11 robbery that left a man slashed in the neck. Johnston was the one who wielded the knife.
The victim had answered an online advertisement posted on an Internet site called Kijiji for a flat-screen TV. He was told to bring $1,400 to a Duke Street address and the TV would be his. He was told to look for a man named Dave who would be sitting on the front steps.
It was 4 p.m.
When the victim pulled up he called to a man sitting on the steps and the man, who said he was Dave, approached the truck and asked if he had the money. When the victim got out of the truck, another man appeared and a scuffle ensued. The victim was then slashed in the neck by Johnston.
The injuries didn't require stitches. But when the victim fell to the ground during the scuffle, his shoulder was separated leaving him unable to work for more than seven weeks.
"It sort of sends a chill up your back with respect to this case," said Crown prosecutor Chris Titus.
"This was well planned."
The young offender - Johnston's accomplice - will be sentenced in mid-November.
Titus asked for a three-year prison term.
Police found the pair hiding in an Orange Street residence and the $1,400 was recovered.
Johnston was also ordered to give a sample of his DNA to the national databank and prohibited from owning firearms for 10 years.
In the prisoner's docket, the young man's eyes were red. He stood at one point and barely holding onto his emotions, offered a brief apology to the victim. Earlier, he had written a letter of apology to the victim and the court.
Brian Ferguson, the 21-year-old's defence lawyer, said his client was ready to accept the consequences.
"He doesn't want to put (the victim) through anymore," Ferguson said.
"Hopefully he will find it in his heart to forgive him."
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Is this fair? Someone who lures a person into a trap, assults them, comes within a hairs bredth of slashing their throat open and steals their money should not see daylight for the full 3 years (or much, much more). Peroid.