How much a man's struggled with mental health should weigh in his sentencing for a fatal stabbing became a key topic during a hearing Tuesday at the Prince George courthouse.
For Christopher Clarke Prince, 37, Crown prosecution is seeking as much as a further 5 1/2 years in prison while defence counsel is submitting a 3 1/2 more years is appropriate for the May 20, 2017 death of Shane Whitford.
Originally charged with second-degree murder, Prince subsequently pleaded guilty to manslaughter, implying that he did not intend to kill Whitford but knew his actions could cause his death.
Prince also pleaded guilty to a count of aggravated assault for stabbing Jessica West during a melee that involved the three.
According to an agreed statement of facts read into the court record, West was Prince's girlfriend for a brief period after leaving Whitford.
The two were in a 2100-block Oak Street home when, during the early morning of the day in question, Whitford showed up. The two men got into an argument that escalated into a fist fight outside the home.
West, meanwhile, had grabbed a large kitchen knife and hid it up a sleeve and, for reasons not made clear, the three plus another woman who was wielding a stick, left the home and made their way along Oak Street.
A witness later recalled a woman making a slashing move with a knife at the other woman and then someone knocking her to the ground and taking away her stick.
Minus the woman who had the stick, Prince, Whitford and West ended up on the front lawn of a 1300-block Porter Ave. home, near the intersection with Oak Street, where "West lost possession of the knife."
Two young men on skateboards who had been on their way to a nearby convenience store, heard cries and made their way to the scene where they saw Prince with a knife in his hand standing over a still-bleeding Whitford who later died in hospital.
As Prince walked away, one of the two who arrived on the scene threw his skateboard at Prince who, in turn, lunged back with the knife but failed to make contact.
As Prince continued along an alley, he threw the knife into a garden plot and his shirt over a fence. Police arrived to find Prince with blood on his face and torso that later matched that of Whitford and West.
Toxicology tests later showed significant amounts of alcohol in both Prince and Whitford. Methamphetamine and cocaine were also found in Prince's bloodstream.
In all, Whitford was found to have suffered 21 stab wounds including one through his eye. But, while Prince has admitted responsibility for Whitford's death, he denies stabbing the victim that many times and claims he acted in self defence.
Prince came away with a slashing wound to one of his forearms, defence counsel Tony Zipp noted in making submissions on the matter.
According to a psychiatric report commissioned by defence counsel, Prince has long suffered from a psychosis that causes him to hear voices and had come to rely on alcohol to get those voices out of his head.
Zipp argued Prince's moral culpability is therefore not as great as if he did not have such issues..
Zipp further contended that the conflict between Prince and Whitford amounted to a "punching and shouting match" until West "introduced a knife into the fracas."
It's not the first time Prince has faced a count of manslaughter. In 2007, he was sentenced to three more years in prison on the charge for the November 2002 death of a half-brother, Reginald Travis Prince, 20, in Fort St. James. He had suffered a single hammer blow to his head while sleeping.
Like he did in the most recent case, Prince was originally charged with second-degree murder and eventually pleaded guilty to manslaughter. The sentencing judge on that matter quoted extensively from a report by a psychiatrist, who said Prince was at high risk to re-offend.
The sentencing hearing on the most recent charge continues Wednesday at the courthouse.
