BY KEITH LACEY
Never has one word meant so much to four young Greater Sudbury men sentenced Friday in a brutal home invasion more than two years ago.
Paul Philion, 23, Michel Gagnon, 21, Mathieu Lafleur, 22 and Guy Lafleur, 26, were all given lengthy penitentiary terms for their involvement in the home invasion on Sept. 7, 2003.
Justice Frank Caputo of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice found all four men guilty following a trial last year.
On Friday, Caputo sentenced Philion to nine years and six months in prison, Gagnon to five years and nine months and both Lafleurs to five years behind bars, noting all sentences were to be served consecutively on numerous serious charges, including aggravated assault, assault causing bodily harm and break and enter.
Within a couple of minutes, however, all the lawyers involved and court staff were reassembled as Caputo pointed out he?d made a mistake and uttered the words ?consecutive? instead of ?concurrent? in imposing sentence.
?I apologize for the error,? said the veteran judge.
Philion will serve a five-year sentence, while Gagnon and both Lafleurs were given three-year penitentiary terms.
Court heard Philion was the ?ringleader? and sought revenge against a homeowner after he was embarrassed by being kicked out of a house party the night before this incident took place.
Philion recruited three friends and attended the same address looking for the homeowner the next evening. When they realized he wasn?t home, they returned three hours later, broke down the door and viciously assaulted him.
The victim suffered three broken teeth, severe bruising and cuts that needed 25 stitches to close and some scars. He had a beer bottle thrown at him
and was repeatedly punched and kicked while down on the ground.
Philion told a witness not to say anything to police or he would kill him, court heard.
Caputo called the home invasion and assault ?cowardly? saying it was obvious having four people beat on one man was not a fair fight.
Home invasions are particularly troubling because people have every right to feel safe in the comfort of their own home and thugs who abuse this
right will pay a serious penalty, he said.
Court heard Philion had a terrible criminal record that included 45 criminal convictions when this event took place.
Mathieu Lafleur had no previous criminal record, but was convicted of two assaults in six months following this incident.
Defence counsel for Gagnon and the two Lafleurs had asked for conditional sentences to be served under strict conditions in the community.
Caputo said the circumstances of this case were too troubling to consider anything other than penitentiary terms.
Besides the penitentiary terms, all four offenders will have to provide a DNA sample for a national crime data bank and all four were prohibited from
owning or possessing weapons for 15 years after their release.
