and Alexandra Zabjek, Edmonton Journal
EDMONTON, Alta. — A man formerly from the south shore of the Bay of Islands was sentenced to six years in jail Thursday for last summer’s stabbing of a Thai man in Edmonton.
In Edmonton provincial court, Michael John Stewart, 21, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and robbery earlier this week. He had originally been charged with second degree murder in the death of 37-year-old Apichat Sudsaneh.
According to the Canadian Press, the Crown and defence jointly recommended the six-year sentence, which takes into account the seven months Stewart already served in custody.
Sudsaneh, a father of two children who was in Canada under a work Visa, was trying to help friends who were being attacked by people demanding money near a convenience store. The Thai man was stabbed in the chest after struggling with Stewart.
At the time, police conducted a search for a number of suspects, and in the ensuing days made several arrests. Stewart confessed to the crime three days after the June 6, 2010 incident.
Two other men had already been sentenced in relation to the robbery.
Also this week, Bodan Allen Henry, 18, received two years, less a day, while Kyle Anthony Brooks, 18, was sentenced to two years in jail in October.
Stewart, who was listed as having no fixed address following his arrest, had a criminal record dating back to this province.
He was also known to have previously lived on Water Street in St. John’s.
According to documents from Newfoundland and Labrador provincial court, he was wanted on charges of theft under $5,000 and breaching several probation orders. They were ordered when he was sentenced in Corner Brook Aug. 10, 2007, to six months in jail, with 18 months probation, for numerous offences, including assault, uttering threats, breaking and entering, possessing property obtained in a crime and breaching several court orders.
Meanwhile, Stewart was also listed on a missing people website — missingcanadians.com — and his sister Teresa Stewart, who is living in Alberta, had a Facebook site dedicated to her search for him. At the time, she stated he had been missing for five months. She wrote she tried to file a missing persons report with police, but said officers treated him as an adult who didn’t want to be found.
Following the stabbing, The Western Star made contact via email with Teresa, who responded that she and her brother had been close all their lives. Despite his troubled past, she struggled to believe he was capable of taking another person’s life.
Teresa said Michael didn’t have a great life, bouncing between foster families and correctional facilities, and said he never found his way — often getting into fights and stealing things.
In her email, she said the search for her brother continued for more than a year. She received several tips from people throughout the country on where or how he could be found, but could never connect with him. She said a police officer in Edmonton told her to leave it alone.
Despite her efforts, Teresa, 22, felt somewhat responsible for the situation her slightly younger brother finds himself in.
“I feel so horrible sometimes that it’s my fault he is where he is,” she wrote. “If I had just searched harder maybe I would have found him, maybe I could have shown him the right path.”
At the same time though, the young woman admitted she was somewhat lost and still so young herself. “I am only a year older than my brother, so I don’t know how much help I could have been, but I’m sure I could have done something at least ... I dunno ... I know how hard life is and I know that Michael hasn’t been shown the right path.”
Teresa said her parents split up when they were young, and she said a lot happened in his life to lead him to misbehave and start trouble.
“All I know is I love my brother and I want him to know that we weren’t abandoning him at all,” she wrote, stating she doesn’t even know if he knew she was looking for him.
In July, Teresa still hadn’t been in contact with Michael, but said she planned to visit him.
“All I want to do is give my brother the biggest hug and let him know how many people are here to support him and how many people love him, because I know I do with all my heart,” she said. “It kills me to know that this is happening to him.”
The Star has been unable to make contact with Teresa since that original email.
Believes he is sorry
Meanwhile, in provincial court in Edmonton this week, Judge Shelagh Creagh said the starting point for the sentence could have been 10 years, but agreed with both counsels that significant credit be given for Stewart’s guilty plea. She also said his confession to police was key in tying him to the crime.
“There is no doubt this is a particularly grave crime,” Creagh said, noting that Sudsaneh died while coming to the aid of two friends.
Stewart must also submit a DNA sample to the national databank and has a lifetime prohibition on owning weapons.
Outside court, Det. Bill Clark, who stressed he was expressing his personal views and not those of the Edmonton Police Service, said he interviewed Stewart and believes he is sorry for his crime.
“I don’t say this about a lot of people, but I think he genuinely had remorse,” he said outside court. “This young man really screwed up.”
Victim impact statements from the friends and family of Sudsaneh described their loss as tremendous. Several men said their physical scars from the attack have healed, but their hearts have not.
with files from Postmedia News