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Crown wants long sentence for knife-wielding stranger

A Sudbury man who brandished a knife in the presence of three young children after breaking into their home will have to wait until a week before Christmas to find out how much longer heÂ?s going to have to spend in jail.
A Sudbury man who brandished a knife in the presence of three young children after breaking into their home will have to wait until a week before Christmas to find out how much longer heÂ?s going to have to spend in jail.

Louie Pitawanakwat, 26, pleaded guilty Wednesday to several serious charges in relation to a bizarre incident that took place just after midnight on Dec. 31, 2002.

Pitawanakwat, who has a long criminal record, pleaded guilty to break and enter with intent to commit assault, mischief for damaging property, uttering death threats, assaulting a police officer, possession of a dangerous weapon and two counts of breach of probation. He was found guilty, after a brief hearing, of assaulting one of the children, although no physical violence was involved

Justice C. Bruce Noble of the Ontario Court of Justice ordered a pre-sentence report and will sentence Pitawanakwat on Dec. 17. Pitawanakwat has eight previous assault convictions and one conviction for aggravated assault.

Cynthia Hunter, 23, who has no previous criminal record, also pleaded guilty to one count of break and enter with intent to commit assault. She will also be sentenced Dec. 17, after a a pre-sentence report is completed.

An agreed statement of facts indicates the family, including the mother and her children, ages 2, 3 and 10, were complete strangers to Pitawanakwat.

The mother and her three children were in bed when the mother heard a knock at the door. She opened the door and saw Hunter, an acquaintance from a few doors down, and Kristen McNichol, PitawanakwatÂ?s girlfriend, outside her door.

Hunter tried to call the woman outside, claiming she had stolen her stereo. Hunter and McNichol grabbed the woman, but she managed to pull away and would not be drawn outside believing she would be beaten up.

McNichol threatened to kill the complainant. McNichol was sentenced to nine months in jail and 18 months probation after pleading guilty to assault, uttering threats and other charges earlier this year.

Pitawanakwat then entered the fray and pushed his way past the woman, entered her home and Hunter and McNichol followed him in. Once inside, McNichol grabbed the complainant by the hair and began hitting her in the face and head. Hunter continued to yell about her stereo being stolen, but did not otherwise participate in any further events.

There has never been any evidence the woman stole HunterÂ?s stereo, said assistant Crown attorney Alex Kurke.

While McNichol was beating on the woman, Pitawanakwat obtained a yellow-handled butcher knife from the
kitchen. While the fight continued, Pitawanakwat stood by, repeatedly laughing, and started using the knife to stab the drywall in the hallway several times.

He grabbed the complainantÂ?s three-year-old son and proceeded upstairs with him, while the boy cried for his mother. While upstairs, he gathered the two younger children in the 10-year-old sonÂ?s room.

Pitawankwat stabbed the boyÂ?s mattress once, which made the two-year-old giggle, but the other two boys were frightened. Pitawanakwat proceeded to stab the mattress several more times in front of all three children.

As he was leaving to go back downstairs, he stuck the knife into the bedroom wall.

Shortly after this, the 10-year-old went downstairs and his mother told him to get help. The boy ran outside to get help, but returned when no one was home at an adjacent apartment. His mother asked him to get help once again and he ran to another unit and police were called.

The victim managed to get away from McNichol and ran outside to get a neighbour to call police, however, she didnÂ?t stay outside long as her three children were still inside her home with three strangers.

All three strangers left after she told them police had been called, but shortly after this Pitawanakwat came back and threatened her with death because sheÂ?d called police.

Police arrived on the scene, talked to the complainant and found Hunter and McNichol in HunterÂ?s apartment. A search found Pitawanakwat hiding in a downstairs bathroom.

He told police his name was Â?John DoeÂ?, even though several officers knew who he was.

When police tried to arrest Pitawanakwat, McNichol grabbed onto him and wouldnÂ?t let go. She was arrested for obstructing police.

As officers tried to bring Pitawanakwat to a cruiser, he yelled Â?watch thisÂ? and tried to kick an officerÂ?s feet, attempting to make him fall down on an icy walkway.

After the agreed statement of facts were presented to the court, Pitawanakwat took the stand. Through questioning from his lawyer James Weppler, he insisted he didnÂ?t mean any harm to any of the three children that night. He had drank eight beers, but clearly remembers what happened that evening, he said.

He had never met the complainant or her children and only got involved after hearing his girlfriend involved in an incident with the woman, he said. He only grabbed the knife in case there was an adult male inside and he wanted to be able to protect himself if he was attacked, said Pitawanakwat.

He kept the three boys inside the upstairs room because he didnÂ?t want any of them to go downstairs and see their mother being assaulted, said Pitawankwat, admitting he did nothing to stop McNichol from beating up the mother.

He stabbed the mattress as a way of diverting the attention of the boys and continued stabbing it because they were laughing at his antics, he said.

Â?I felt I was being comicalÂ?making them laugh,Â? he said. Â?I tried to make the situation not as terrible as it really was.Â?

During cross-examination, when Kurke suggested he grabbed the knife because he intended to use it against anyone who would confront him, Pitawanakwat denied it.

When Kurke suggested the boys werenÂ?t laughing when he was stabbing walls and the mattress, but were terrified, Pitawanakwat again denied it.

Â?I got this feeling they all knew I wasnÂ?t going to harm them,Â? he said. Â?It was a macho thing. It was stupid.Â?
The Crown is expected to ask for a lengthy penitentiary term at the sentencing hearing.

Weppler told the court he will ask for a sentence of time served as his client has already spent 10 months in custody since his arrest.