Regina Court of Queen’s Bench. Photo by Manfred Joehnck.
A Balcarres man has been sentenced to 15 years in prison after being found guilty of manslaughter in the vicious beating of an elderly man he once considered his friend.
Dale Murray Stonechild, 62, was drinking with 80-year-old Victor Richard McNabb in a Regina home in 2013 when he beat and stabbed the elderly man to death.
The victim’s injuries were so horrendous he was unrecognizable.
Stonechild’s lawyer had asked the court for a restorative justice sentence involving intensive First Nations community counselling. Prosecutors wanted a life sentence with no chance of parole for at least seven years.
Stonechild has already served more than four years in remand. He was initially charged with second-degree murder, but was found guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter.