Two years in prison for a violent attack with blows of the hammer in a convenience store

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Michael Nguyen

Friday 30th of march 2018 11:53

UPDATE
Friday, 30 march 2018 12:13

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A Montrealer who had savagely beaten a man with a hammer because he was taken to his wife pregnant has been sentenced to two years in prison, despite the extreme violence of the attack.

“I lost an eye, it is really difficult to look at myself in the mirror, I really have a mouth of shit”, said Thursday the victim of Yan Lafrenière, at the palais de justice of Montreal.

The man, whose a court order prohibits us from revealing the identity since it has itself a trial, testified regarding the consequences of the assault that he suffered in march 2017.

On this day, Lafrenière and his wife, five months pregnant were arguing in front of their house when the man approached them. For an unknown reason, an argument broke out and insults were cast.

“At one point, the accused will sprinkling Cayenne pepper to bring to the defence of madame”, one can read in the relevant facts filed in the court file.

Extreme Violence

The quarrel is then transported in a convenience store not far from there. The video of a surveillance camera allows you to see the victim of Lafrenière who grabs the pregnant woman, while a client tries to prevent it.

It is at this time that Lafrenière, 26, has jumped into the fray with a hammer. He was winning his victim, pressing a dozen of blows, under the eyes of terrified customers and the clerk armed with a baseball bat. A client disguised as an Easter bunny who came into the convenience store at that moment was visibly stunned by the violence of the scene.

“The attack has destabilized my life, it broke my couple, testified the victim of Lafrenière. It is the act the most loose I’ve ever seen.”

The images that follow are very violent. They may shock some people. We prefer to warn you.

Self-defence

The accused should stand trial before a jury, but, following negotiations with the Crown, he eventually pleaded guilty to aggravated assault. At the suggestion of the lawyers, he has been sentenced to two years in prison. However, taking into account the preventive detention, he has only five months to be served.

The prosecutor Alexis Dinelle has admitted that the penalty was less severe than those usually imposed in cases of this kind, but he reminded the court that the accused could try to plead self-defence. However, as Lafrenière continued to hit the victim on the ground, this defense was far from won.

I Roucha Oshriyeh, his lawyer, for his part, explained that his client had used the time he had spent in prison to work on his alcohol problems, in addition to taking programs on the violence and interpersonal relationships.

“It does not excuse the gesture, but, on the evening of the tragedy, it was not completely sober”, she explained to the judge Johanne St-Gelais.

The victim of Lafreniere, his side, will have to stand trial in August for the assault of the pregnant woman.