A Montreal Lake man has been sentenced for a violent kidnapping that left his aunt with both physical and emotional scars.
Kevin Henderson received a nine-year penitentiary sentence in Montreal Lake on Wednesday.
At his sentencing hearing, the graphic details of his attack came out. Henderson stabbed both his aunt Marina Henderson and his mother while they had been driving in Marina’s van last summer. Another woman had been with Kevin as well. Shantal Mike spent 176 days in custody for her role in the attack.
Marina was tied to a seat in her van and confined for more than 48 hours while Kevin and Mike drank and did drugs at a home on Little Red reserve.
At his sentencing hearing, Kevin said he flew into a rage remembering a very traumatic childhood, which led to the stabbing and kidnapping. Kevin spoke about abuse he suffered growing up. Some was at the hands of people at a residential school Kevin went to, but some was at the hands of his mother.
“This was a very unusual case in the sense that there was such a direct link between the offending behavior and the experience of the offender with the individuals involved,” said defence lawyer Brian Pfefferle.
“His life as described at the sentencing hearing can only be described as a series of horrible tragedies leading him to the criminal justice system and this particular offence.”
At Kevin’s sentencing hearing Judge Loewen told the court he’d originally expected to be able to provide the sentence that day. However, the details that came out at that sentencing left Loewen needing a month to consider how much time Henderson should spend in jail.
In the end, the sentence Loewen delivered is on the lower end of the sentencing requests. Pfefferle had sought five to six years on top of Henderson’s time served, while the Crown prosecutor had sought 15 years.
“In a kidnapping case like this, sentences are routinely in the double-digits,” Pfefferle said, which led to slight relief.
“Hopefully he’ll be able to do the things he needs to do to be considered for parole.”
Pfefferle says it seems the judge considered factors that relate to being aboriginal, which are called Gladue factors.