A First Nations man has been sentenced to 11 years in prison after a drug deal apparently went wrong and resulted in the stabbing death of another man last summer.
Last November, Arnold Isiah Halkett, a member of the Lac La Ronge Indian Band, pleaded guilty to the June 8, 2012 stabbing death of Nicholas Peter Smith who was found dead in an apartment above Bud’s Bar on Broadway Avenue.
Halkett and another man were apparently trying to sell Smith a prescription drug when an altercation ensued.
The 47-year-old Halkett had originally been charged with second-degree murder but the charge had been reduced to manslaughter after he pleaded guilty to the lesser charge.
In a strange twist, sentencing had been delayed after Halkett claimed he had stabbed Smith in self-defence but his lawyer George Combe said his client was only describing a dream and he did not want to withdraw his guilty plea.
The Crown had been seeking 15 years with no chance of parole while Combe argued for the lesser sentence of 10 years with credit for remand citing Halkett had suffered physical and sexual abuse during his time in the residential school system.
Justice Ron Mills gave Halkett one-to-one credit for the 232 days he has spent in remand as well as a lifetime ban on the use of firearms.