A B.C. woman convicted of manslaughter by a B.C. Supreme Court jury in the fatal Vancouver stabbing of a 29-year-old man should be sentenced to 6.5 years in prison, a Crown prosecutor has told the court.
Lindsay Scott was charged with second-degree murder in the death of Justin Mohrman, who was walking near Smithe and Homer streets around 8:30 a.m. on July 11, 2022 when he was stabbed.
Scott pleaded not guilty to the charge.
Speaking to the eight-woman, four-man jury before it began deliberations before noon April 15, Justice Frits Verhoeven said they had to make a decision between second-degree murder or the lesser included charge of manslaughter.
A jury does not give reasons for its verdict.
As the female foreperson announced the manslaughter verdict April 16, Scott leaned her hands on the prisoner's dock wall, with defence lawyer John Turner patting her back.
Turner told Lodestar Media that Crown prosecutor Brendan McCabe had asked Verhoeven to sentence Scott to a further two years in prison and probation on top of time she has been behind bars awaiting trial.
The lawyers were before Verhoeven July 16 to make sentencing submissions.
”She’s done 4.5 years,” Turner told Lodestar.
The defence lawyer suggested Scott has served enough time in jail and should be released on probation.
“My position is Ms. Scott has served sufficient time in custody and you should consider releasing her today on probation,” Turner told the court.
He said lawyers can seek probation in manslaughter cases. There, he said, the issue becomes managing the offender’s risk factors in the community.
Verhoeven is expected to reserve his decision.
The case
On April 7, McCabe told the jury and Verhoeven that Scott admitted “she did in fact inflict the fatal stab wound.”
Further, he said, the knife belonged to Mohrman and that his blood was on the blade and Scott’s DNA was on the handle.
The two main issues before the court, McCabe said, were whether she intended to kill Mohrman or if she recklessly intended to cause him bodily harm knowing it was likely to cause his death.
Witness Scott Lethbridge testified April 8 that he was sitting outside the Vancouver Public Library main branch when a woman approached and sat down next to him.
“She said she stabbed somebody in the heart,” Lethbridge told the court.
Lethbridge described the woman as nervous and said he gave her $20 so she would go away.
“She started running,” Lethbridge said. “She pulled her pants down. That’s when the city police arrested her.”
In addressing the jury before it began deliberations, Verhoeven said Scott’s testimony included her not remembering much of the events. He said she recalled perhaps having done drugs earlier in the day, and that she had at times used fentanyl, heroin and methamphetamine.
"She said she believed she was stabbing Mohrman in the shoulder," Verhoeven said.
