THUNDER BAY - The Crown is seeking a dangerous offender assessment for Jonathan Yellowhead, who has already pleaded guilty to a violent assault at the Thunder Bay District Jail, but a Superior Court judge will reserve his decision to grant the assessment until after the verdict in his manslaughter trial.
Yellowhead appeared before Justice Danial Newton from the Thunder Bay District Jail on Tuesday for a dangerous or long-term offender hearing.
Crown attorney Thomas Bud is seeking an application to order an assessment of Yellowhead with respect to a dangerous offender or long-term offender designation as part of the sentencing on the aggravated assault at the District Jail.
A dangerous offender designation carries with it an indeterminate jail sentence and is determined by an offender displaying repetitive violent behaviour and lack of remorse, thereby posing potential future risk to the public.
A long-term offender designation involves the supervision of the offender for a period of 10 years.
Yellowhead has already pleaded guilty to aggravated assault for an attack at the Thunder Bay District Jail in September 2019 that resulted in an inmate suffering serious injuries.
Several other inmates were also involved in the assault.
According to Bud’s application, Yellowhead has an extensive criminal record, including previous convictions for violence, as well as other instances of misconduct while in custody where no criminal proceedings have been initiated.
“There are no criminal convictions necessary here, but it shows that Mr. Yellowhead is violent in institutional environments as well,” Bud said.
“The offences and misconduct instances on fellow inmates demonstrates a pattern of aggressive behaviour. In particular, the instances of misconduct within the institutionalized facility of the jail is quite clear here.”
Bud added that the 2019 unprovoked attack on an inmate and its brutal nature demonstrates Yellowhead is unlikely to be inhibited by normal custody standards.
“Given his criminal record for violence as well as the pattern of behaviour we see in an institutionalized setting, there is the risk that he would reoffend,” Bud said.
Yellowhead’s defense counsel Neil McCartney argued there are no reasonable grounds for a dangerous or long-term offender designation and the bar for seeking an assessment is a ‘doozy of a low bar.’
“It’s a bar once you are over it, opens the Crown to the most severe punishment, which is imprisonment without end,” he said.
McCartney also argued that the brutality of the environment at the Thunder Bay District Jail, while does not excuse Yellowhead’s actions, does put it in context.
“I think I can submit safely based on everyone’s understanding is that our district jail is a bit rougher than the average correctional facility in the province,” he said.
In terms of other allegations of misconduct while in custody, McCartney said the court must be cautious given that Yellowhead has not had an opportunity to defend himself in court.
McCartney’s argument also relied heavily on the disparity between Yellowhead’s sentence including a dangerous or long-term offender designation and that of the other co-accused, who received sentences of two or three years.
“I submit there are not reasonable grounds to declare he might be a dangerous offender,” McCartney said. “In no legally supported scenario would a sentence, and it is part of the sentence, would be disparate from the other co-accused.”
During submissions by counsel, Justice Newton asked if the pending verdict in manslaughter trial against Yellowhead should be taken into consideration in his decision.
In April 2022, Yellowhead stood trial on the charge of manslaughter for his alleged role in the beating death of 17-year-old Braiden Jacob, whose body was found in the Chapples Park area in December 2018.
Bud said either a finding of guilt or an acquittal on the manslaughter charge would have an effect on the dangerous offender designation, but added the application presented on Tuesday was an evidentiary order to grant an assessment.
McCartney said if Yellowhead is acquitted, the court will be in the same position it is in now, and nothing is stopping Justice Newton from waiting until the verdict is determined.
Justice Newton said it is important for him to know the result of the manslaughter verdict before proceeding with the application. The matter was adjourned to the next assignment court on May 30 to set a date for continuation after the manslaughter verdict.
