An Aboriginal man who began a life of crime at age 13 has had an indefinite jail term overturned.
At Court of Queen’s Bench in Regina, Justice Ellen Gunn sentenced 38-year-old Chad Michael Ewenin to a fixed prison term.
Gunn sentenced the man to serve another four-and-a-half years in jail, followed by seven years of intense community supervision.
Ewenin wept as the judge delivered the decision.
This was his second hearing.
Ewenin was declared a dangerous offender in 2009 and given an indefinite jail term.
That decision was overturned on appeal and a new hearing was ordered.
His lawyer Jeff Deagle says the decision gives Ewenin hope.
“Now there is an end date,” he says. “There are goals to work towards. He has something more tangible to reach for. I mean it’s his life.”
The Saskatchewan Coalition Against Racism has also been following the case closely. Coalition spokesman Bob Hughes says Ewenin has done a lot of work to turn his life around.
“His winning of the appeal has caused some re-thinking in the justice department and I think the next case will cause a further shake in that stand,” he says.
Ewenin, who has been in custody since 2006, is credited with eight years jail time previously served.
He must still serve two years for the armed robbery of a Regina gas station and two-and-a-half years for the assault of another inmate in 2010.
Ewenin will serve the remainder of his sentence in B.C. where he has been involved in traditional Aboriginal healing and other prison programs.