A rabid driver has his sentence reinstated

A rabid driver who stabbed a motorist following a minor collision will have to serve three years in prison, the Supreme Court has ruled.

“We order Daniel Brunelle to surrender to the prison authorities”, ruled unanimously the judges of the highest court in the country, thus sealing the fate of Brunelle who still lived with the hope of a new trial.

It is that the 58-year-old accused could not digest having been sentenced for violently attacking another motorist during the summer of 2016, on the North Shore of Montreal.

That day, Brunelle was driving on Highway 25 when he hit the trailer pulled by François Fugère. Angry, the latter insulted the accused before punching him in the face.

However, in response, Brunelle took out a small knife he was carrying in his belt and stabbed the victim five times, including in the chest and lung. And to make matters worse, the weapon was infected with bacteria.

Vision lost

This went up to the eye of Mr. Fugère who lost 80% of his vision.

“I haven’t started working again three years later and it’s not about to happen,” lamented the victim.

Guilty of serious and armed assault as well as possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose, the accused Brunelle did not accept the verdict.

He not only claimed to have acted in self-defense, but had also assured that the victim had fallen on his weapon.

“The defendant was unable to control his rage. He used unnecessary, disproportionate and dangerous force, ”recalled judge Kathlyn Gauthier, however.

Brunelle had appealed his case and by a majority, this court had ordered a new trial on the pretext that the rules concerning self-defense had been incorrectly applied.

Except that the Court of Appeal did its homework poorly, according to Canada’s highest court. Because rather than analyzing whether there had been an error of law, she had squarely replaced the trial judge.

“The Court of Appeal failed to consider the trial judge’s privileged position in assessing the evidence,” the Supreme Court said.

Brunelle will therefore have to accept her fate, and spend three years in the shade.

– With Christian Plouffe