A Victoria man who attacked and seriously injured another man with a baseball bat has been sentenced to 30 months in jail followed by two years of probation.
Russell Meredith, 54, and his co-accused, George Storry, were charged with the attempted murder of Chris Gibson on May 22, 2015, in the Langford Street rooming house where they all lived at one time.
On Thursday, Meredith pleaded guilty in Victoria provincial court to the aggravated assault of Gibson. Meredith, who has been in custody since the assault, was credited with 590 days of pre-trial custody. This means he must spend a further 10 months in jail.
Storry’s trial for the attempted murder of Gibson took place in B.C. Supreme Court in June. A judge is expected to decide his fate next week.
Judge Adrian Brooks said the incident can’t be downplayed. “It was a savage attack. The use by two people of baseball bats on one makes it cowardly.”
In his sentencing decision, Brooks referred to an agreed statement of facts that revealed that Meredith and Storry had recently moved out of the rooming house. Meredith believed Gibson had stolen his possessions and he had been in a fight with Gibson a week earlier.
At 9 p.m. on May 22, Meredith and Storry went to Gibson’s room armed with baseball bats. Storry, the building manager, identified himself.
When Gibson opened the door, Meredith hit Gibson in the head with a baseball bat, causing him to fall and hit a mirrored door. The two men continued to hit Gibson with the baseball bats as he lay on the ground.
Gibson had a skull fracture, swelling to the brain, lacerations on his head requiring 47 stitches, a fracture of his left elbow and arm, and a fracture of his right arm. He suffers from a permanent brain injury.
Photographs attached to the agreed statement of facts show the brutality visited on Gibson, Brooks said. A tremendous amount of blood was spilled. Gibson’s right arm was stapled together and looks deformed.
Brooks agreed with Crown prosecutor Lorne Phipps that there was some degree of planning involved in the assault.
However, Brooks found Meredith, who is 54 and low-functioning due to fetal alcohol syndrome, to be of lower moral culpability in the attack.
Meredith’s criminal record, though lengthy, consists mostly of petty offences. It also had a significant three-year gap from December 2006 to February 2010, said the judge.
None of his previous criminal convictions are for anything like the attack on Gibson.
“Who was the leader in of all this?” Brooks asked. “Was it Mr. Storry or was it Mr. Meredith? Or are they just equally at fault in terms of what brought them to that doorway with baseball bats? I’ve thought long and hard about that.”
In the end, Brooks agreed with defence lawyer Michael Munro that Meredith would never have been at that door if not for Storry. Storry is more capable and was also Meredith’s employer, the judge noted.
“Mr. Meredith did indeed look up to Mr. Storry and he has no behaviour like this in his past.”
Brooks found the mitigating factors to be Meredith’s guilty plea, which meant Gibson did not have to testify about his nightmarish experience, and Meredith’s expression of remorse.
In asking for a three-year sentence less the time in custody, the Crown did not take into account Meredith’s lower moral culpability, Brooks said. In asking for a two-year sentence less the time in custody, the defence did not take into account the seriousness of what happened, the judge said.
During his probation, Meredith is not allowed to have contact with Gibson or Storry. Brooks ordered him to take counselling — which may address anger management, alcohol and drug abuse, and life skills — as directed by his probation officer.
Meredith must also complete 120 hours of community service in the first 12 months of his probation and provide a sample of his DNA to the authorities.
