Dawson man’s crimes send him off to cells
A Dawson City man can’t recall the details of the crime that landed him in territorial court on Friday, but he said he’d remember the experience forever.
A Dawson City man can’t recall the details of the crime that landed him in territorial court on Friday, but he said he’d remember the experience forever.
“It’s a big turn in my life,” said Gabriel Labonte-Dubois, 28.
He pleaded guilty to sexual assault and unlawfully being in a dwelling house – charges that earned him a sentence of two years less a day.
In December 2015, Labonte-Dubois broke into the house of a Dawson City woman who called the RCMP after returning home and finding a stranger passed out on her couch.
The following January, Labonte-Dubois was drinking at a friend’s house when a female friend of his (the complainant) asked if she could sleep at his place because her house was outside of the town.
The complainant walked to his house alone and went to sleep in the basement. She woke when Labonte-Dubois got home.
According to the statement of facts read by Crown prosecutor Jennifer Grandy, Labonte-Dubois bit the complainant’s face, though she cried and asked him to stop.
He asked the complainant to punch him in the face before punching himself, then holding her down and having forced sex with her.
The complainant left his house and went to a bar to find a friend to drive her home. She later attended the Dawson City hospital.
Addressing the court, Labonte-Dubois said he was sorry about what he’d done. He said that if he had gone through the same thing, he would be as traumatized as the complainant was.
Defence attorney Nils Clark said his client and the complainant had had a rough sexual relationship in the past, but stated “This obviously went too far ... this was not, in any way, consensual.
“That was basically the conclusion of a very negative downward spiral, and (Labonte-Dubois) has been digging himself out at WCC (the Whitehorse Correction Centre).”
Clark went on to say his client had a “relatively hardscrabble” existence.
Growing up in Quebec, Labonte-Dubois witnessed domestic violence in his home.
Over the years, he moved around to British Columbia, Europe and Mexico, working jobs in snow removal, brush clearing, pruning, and at farms and factories.
He received a suspended sentence in 2007 for a break and enter.
Clark said Labonte-Dubois quit using cocaine and speed in 2012, but went on to replace it with alcohol.
Clark said his client has been doing well in jail so far, and is cautiously optimistic, and cognizant of the fact that abstinence is the way to go when it comes to drinking.
In putting forth a joint submission of two years less a day, Grandy noted the guilty plea was a mitigating factor, partly because it spared the complainant from having to testify – something she was concerned about.
Judge Michael Cozens granted the submission.
Comments (4)
Up 23 Down 1
Brian Lawson on Aug 9, 2016 at 7:23 pm
Lets be clear on this report. This slime bag is not from Dawson. He is from Quebec and was spending the summer in Dawson. There seems to be a lot of these filthy characters showing up in the north this summer.
Up 18 Down 3
June Jackson on Aug 9, 2016 at 11:56 am
The judges in the Yukon are certainly not consistent in their rulings...which indicates they have a fair amount of latitude when considering the merits of one sentence over another. While all judiciary must stay with in the parameters of federal and territorial law, it seems that there is quite a leeway in which judges can and do present personal idealism into their rulings. Examples might be the French judge and the francophone community. There was NOTHING impersonal about his judgement. Or, perhaps the judge who recently said, "The only opinion that matters is mine".
Who judges the judges? If the legal association is supposed to monitor their members, they are doing a really poor job.
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jc on Aug 8, 2016 at 9:39 pm
It's been said "Everybody's screwy but me and youee, and youee I ain't to shuree". I swear our world and society is getting more insane everyday. Just out of curiosity, if she was having so much trouble with this idiot, why did she want to spend the night at his house? When I was growing up, this was called provocation. Either, the case would be thrown out of court or both would be doing time.
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Dave L. on Aug 8, 2016 at 5:46 pm
This is way too harsh a sentence. Judge Chisholm gave a 2 year sentence for a brutal homicide so this sentence should be quite a bit less severe than that. I don't what to expect for sentences from these Yukon judges anymore.