Tannery stabbings lead to house arrest
Tynan Alexander Manness, 23, of Manitoba, who was in capital region for course at Base Gagetown, grabbed knife from his car when fight broke out
After a free-for-all bar fight outside a downtown Fredericton bar two years ago, two men had been stabbed, and the Manitoba man who did it was racing back to Base Gagetown where he was staying, a court heard Thursday.
Tynan Alexander Manness, 23, of Lasalle, Man., appeared in Fredericton provincial court for sentencing Thursday for a count of aggravated assault, to which he’d previously pleaded guilty.
The charge indicated Manness had assaulted Brady Fraser and Tristan Banville with a knife with the intent to wound, maim, disfigure or endanger their lives.
Judge Mary Jane Richards imposed a conditional sentence of 22 months, reflecting a recent change in the law that saw provisions barring such community-based sentences and mandatory minimum jail terms removed from the Criminal Code of Canada.
Court heard the offence occurred as a result of a melee outside Klub Khrome at the Tannery in downtown Fredericton in the early-morning hours of July 11, 2021.
Crown prosecutor Rodney Jordan said that shortly before 2:30 a.m., a fight broke out between two factions - some locals, including Fraser and Banville, and some military reservists who were in the region taking a course at Base Gagetown.
Manness was one of those reservists.
The prosecutor said Fraser was exiting Klub Khrome with a woman named Bailey Hansen, and she took umbrage at another man - a friend who was with Manness - whom she felt was staring at her.
Hansen called the man out, court heard, and they ended up throwing punches. That prompted others to join in the fight.
As Manness’ friend was being struck by others in the fight, Jordan said, Manness went to his nearby car and retrieved a hunting knife.
That’s when he stabbed Fraser and Banville.
“[Fraser realized] someone stabbed him in the back, and he didn’t know he’d been stabbed in the abdomen,” the prosecutor said, noting a woman immediately pulled Fraser away and they retreated back into the bar.
Banville sustained a wound to the back of his hand, court heard, that severed a tendon between his thumbs and index finger, and required surgery weeks later.
Jordan said Fraser sustained a superficial laceration to his back, but the puncture to his abdomen required surgery for a gastric repair and repair to the wall of the abdomen.
He noted Manness and others piled into his car and fled the scene, headed back to Base Gagetown, but city police had descriptions of the car and occupants, and learned where they were likely going.
Military personnel at the base entrance stopped Manness’ car and kept them there until the Fredericton police arrived, the prosecutor said.
‘A gross overreaction to the situation’
Several people captured part of the fight and fallout on cellphone video, he said, and he played a couple of them for the court to demonstrate how chaotic the scene was.
Jordan said Fraser reported that due to his abdominal injury, he missed out on a linesman course he was scheduled to take, and that forced a delay for him professionally.
“It was a gross overreaction to the situation. No one else had a knife,” the prosecutor said.
In his pre-sentence report interview, Manness said he felt he had to act to help his friend, who was being beaten on the ground, so his military training kicked in, the prosecutor said.
But he pointed out there were reservists with him, including a woman seen on video who was able to stand by and wasn’t driven by her training.
Jordan said Manness ended up getting in further trouble after the Fredericton fracas, being sentenced to five months in jail for a conviction for sharing intimate images. Furthermore, he went off the rails since the stabbing due to abuse of alcohol and drugs, including LSD, ecstasy and cocaine.
Jordan argued the crime called for a jail term, but he acknowledged recent changes to the Criminal Code of Canada have made a community-based conditional sentence available in such cases.
He noted the case was resolved after plenty of negotiations between the Crown and defence, and there was a need to acknowledge mitigating factors, including Manness’ guilty plea.
“This would’ve been a long, difficult trial,” the prosecutor said, adding there was some quid pro quo in arriving at their sentencing recommendations.
While Jordan didn’t suggest a conditional-sentence order for Manness, he didn’t oppose it either. Ultimately, he said, the offence called for jail time, but he left it with the court if it would be served behind bars or in the community.
“The Crown doesn’t have concerns about the safety of the public,” the prosecutor said.
That means the court needs to decide if a conditional sentence would be sufficient in the circumstances to deter others from committing similar offences.
Defence lawyer T.J. Burke said the prosecution was being more than fair in its position on sentencing. He urged the court to impose the conditional-sentence order.
He said Manness has strong family support, noting his parents and partner drove with him from Manitoba to Fredericton for Thursday’s hearing.
“He believed he was doing the right thing that night, coming to his friend’s defence,” the defence lawyer said.
When Manness went to get the knife, he said, his friend was on the ground, being beaten and kicked in the head. But when he got back seconds later, Burke said, his friend was back on his feet, and the level of force used wasn’t justified.
‘They got poked with a knife’
“He could’ve called 911. He could’ve walked away from it. He could’ve jumped in there… have the mob turn on him,” the defence lawyer said, noting Manness didn’t know how many people were involved in the fight.
While the incident qualified as a stabbing, Burke argued it wasn’t as serious as it sounded, and the victims were involved in violence as well.
“They’re in there curb-stomping someone in the Tannery, and they got poked with a knife,” he said.
Burke said his client has gotten sober in recent months and is gainfully employed, and he argued that if members of the public knew all of the circumstances of the case, they would find a conditional-sentence order wouldn’t undermine confidence in the justice system.
The defence counsel said if the court feels traditional incarceration is required, he was asking for a sentence of two years plus a day, which would put his client in the federal prison system, which has more resources.
Manness said he regretted his actions on the night in question.
“I can imagine how this has impacted the victims’ lives, and I apologize,” he said, adding he was intoxicated at the time.
The last couple of years have been rough, the offender said, adding he’s been clean of drugs and alcohol since he served some jail time - save for marijuana.
“There is an anger issue,” Richards said in rendering her decision, noting Manness needed counselling.
His instinct to help his friend was understandable, she said, but he went too far.
“The [friend] was on his feet at that time,” the judge said.
Furthermore, Richards said, there was plenty of blame to go around in the case, noting Bailey Hansen appeared to have instigated the violence.
“It’s a very volatile and dangerous situation … In the end, no one deserves to be stabbed,” she said.
If a conditional sentence was still unavailable for the offender, the judge said, she would have been comfortable imposing time behind bars.
“But I recognize that the CSO is available,” she said, noting there were several mitigating factors in Manness’ favour.
Richards said the violence was right on the line to justify jail time, but the offender’s positive progress in recent months tipped the scales in favour of a conditional sentence.
For the first 10 months of the conditional sentence, Manness will be under house arrest, the judge said.
He’ll only be allowed to leave his home for work, medical emergencies and appointments, treatment and counselling, and Saturdays between noon and 5 p.m. for personal business.
For the final 12 months of the sentence, Manness will be subject to a curfew, except for work as well.
Richards also ordered him to have no contact with the victims during that time, though since he lives in Manitoba, that’s not expected to be an issue.
The judge also ordered him to submit a DNA sample for inclusion in a criminal database, to refrain from possessing firearms and other weapons for 10 years and to forfeit the knife used in the crime to the Crown.
Don MacPherson can be contacted at ftonindependent@gmail.com.
Wow ok.. weirdo with a knife. Should be kicked out of the military..