BY KEITH LACEY
A young man whose life has been destroyed by drug and alcohol addiction was given another chance to turn things around by a veteran judge Thursday, who sentenced him to a long stint of house arrest instead of keeping in him jail for another assault on his girlfriend while under the influence.
Following a highly-emotional sentencing hearing, Justice William Fitzgerald sentenced Nicholas Nootchtai, 27, to a 12-month conditional sentence to be served in the community under house arrest.
Nootchtai can only leave his residence for five hours each Saturday and Sunday to access the necessities of life after pleading guilty to assaulting his girlfriend in mid-August. He can also leave his residence to access medical emergencies and counselling as ordered by his probation officer.
Court heard Nootchtai has accumulated an astounding 51 criminal convictions, including a dozen for assault, one of which was against his current girlfriend three years ago.
Assistant Crown attorney Nathalie Boivin had asked the court to impose an additional three-month sentence on top of almost 50 days Nootchtai has already spent in custody since his arrest Aug. 20.
After a 30-minute discussion with Nootchtai, Fitzgerald said he believes this accused can turn around his troubled life if he's willing to finally give up alcohol and drugs.
"Are you man enough to quit doing drugs and alcohol?" asked the veteran judge.
Nootchtai tearfully acknowledged alcohol and drugs "get the best of me" and are at the root of every single criminal conviction he's accumulated over the past dozen years.
He told the court he's tired of hurting people he loves the most, wants to turn his troubled life around and finally realizes he can no longer take drugs or alcohol under any circumstance.
On Aug. 19, while under the influence of alcohol and crack cocaine, Nootchtai got into an argument with his girlfriend, who is deaf, and kicked her in the leg and slapped her across the face.
The next day, again under the influence of crack, he forcefully grabbed her under the arms after she stopped to meet a friend on a downtown street.
Fitzgerald made it clear he's dealt with Nootchtai on many occasions in the past and recognizes he's a decent young man when clean and sober, but gets into all kinds of trouble when he's on drugs and alcohol.
He asked Nootchtai if he was finally willing to seek professional counselling and accept help from his girlfriend, family and members of the N'Swakamok Native Friendship Centre.
Nootchtai quietly nodded his head in the affirmative and reiterated he wants to quit getting into trouble, hurting people he cares about and live a decent life without drugs and alcohol.
Fitzgerald told Nootchtai his assaultive behaviour towards the woman he obviously loves is unacceptable.
"You keep hurting this lady and you keep hurting yourself and you do it over and over and over again," he said.
Boivin told the court Nootchtai's girlfriend is still very much in love with him, but is tired of being assaulted and is no longer willing to accept his addictive lifestyle.
If he's willing to go clean and sober, she's willing to stick by him and be a big part of his life, she said.
Boivin had originally asked the court to allow Nootchtai and his girlfriend to continue to be able to communicate with each other, but not be able to live together.
Fitzgerald said he believes that as long as Nootchtai keeps his promise to abstain from drugs and alcohol, he's not a threat to her and was not going to order them to not live together.
If his girlfriend wants to help him, she will report any breaches of his sentence to the authorities immediately, said Fitzgerald.
Besides one year of house arrest, Nootchtai was ordered to complete a partner assault program, access any other counselling his probation officer might recommend and abstain completely from alcohol and all non-prescription drugs.
Fitzgerald warned Nootchtai that any breach of his sentence will result in him going directly to jail to complete the one-year conditional sentence he imposed.
Nootchtai was also prohibited from owning or possessing any weapon for five years.
Nootchtai thanked Fitzgerald for giving him another chance and promised he's going to stay clean and sober, abide by all the conditions of his sentence and stay out of trouble.
