‘I find it to be a very serious assault’: Judge hands man 4 years in jail for role in Sturgeon Lake confinement case

Mar 3, 2020 | 5:26 PM

A judge handed two men four years and two years in jail for their respective roles in a 2019 gang-related incident where a woman was confined and beaten for 11 hours.

Chad James Walker, 26, and Dwayne Joseph Highway, 28, were sentenced Tuesday at Prince Albert Provincial Court during separate hearings. The incident took place March 2, 2019 on the Sturgeon Lake First Nation.

According to the statement of facts read in court last week by Crown Prosecutor Kristen Hubbard, a young woman was subjected to extensive physical abuse, and told police she was held captive in a house for 11 hours before escaping through a window. The woman, who had come to the house on her own accord, was a member of a rival gang, Hubbard said.

Walker received a four-year sentence after Provincial Court Judge Earl Kalenith found him to be responsible for the various assaults committed against the victim. During the confinement period, Walker punched the woman repeatedly and tied a noose around her neck. Court heard the woman was forced to act like a dog.

Walker’s sentence will run consecutive with another two-year jail sentence he received for an unrelated weapons conviction he received previously. Following his custodial sentence, Walker will not be permitted to own firearms for the next 20 years. Kalenith noted Walker was considered a high risk to re-offend due to his gang involvement.

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“I find it to be a very serious assault,” Kalenith said.

At a hearing later in the afternoon, co-accused Dwayne Joseph Highway received a two-year jail sentence. While Highway was not involved in the actual assault at the home, court heard he transported multiple guns to the home where the woman was confined. The guns were later seized by police.

Judge Kalenith said he considered several “mitigating” factors when determining his length of jail sentence. Those factors included Highway’s guilty plea, and the cognitive challenges he faces from cerebral palsy. Kalenith noted those challenges include a disrupted attention span and difficulty processing emotions.

“Those have been factors which have plagued Mr. Highway for a significant portion of his life,” he said.

Highway also received a 10-year firearm ban.

Walker and Highway are two of the original eight suspects charged in connection to the incident. The two however have faced the most serious charges.

Brandy Felix, one of the other suspects charged from the incident, received 27 days in jail for her role. According to court records, Felix held a knife to the victim’s throat.

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nigel.maxwell@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @nigelmaxwell

by Nigel Maxwell

‘I find it to be a very serious assault’: Judge hands man 4 years in jail for role in Sturgeon Lake confinement case

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