A Wasaga Beach man told a sentencing hearing that he “was in a very bad place” and intoxicated when he busted down a neighbour’s door and stabbed the man — unprovoked — in his arm, chest and hip before fleeing to Saskatchewan.
Brayden Bullock, 21, who was arrested in Saskatoon eight days after the stabbing in Wasaga Beach a year ago, earlier pleaded guilty to aggravated assault. He was originally charged with attempted murder.
At the time, emergency services responded to an Academy Avenue residence and found a 33-year-old man who had been stabbed. He was taken to hospital where he received stitches, court heard Tuesday.
OPP used a helicopter and tracking dog, but were unable to locate Bullock, Crown attorney Lynn Shirreffs said during his sentencing hearing. An arrest warrant was then issued and police warned that he was armed and dangerous.
Handcuffed and standing in the prisoner's dock, with family members next to him in the public gallery, Bullock read from a letter he had written for the court.
“I will do everything in my power… to never do anything like this again,” said Bullock, who described an unsupportive childhood in which he suffered verbal, emotional and physical abuse and received an early introduction to drugs and alcohol which landed him in rehab at age 17.
He said he hasn’t done drugs since, but started drinking more.
Sherriffs said Bullock has accumulated a significant record in a short period of time, which included violence, and was on probation during the Wasaga attack, having been released from custody 21 days earlier.
She asked that he be sentenced to five years in prison, minus time served.
“Basically, he’s stabbing a stranger for reasons known only to him,” she said. “A significant jail sentence is necessary.”
Defence lawyer Jason Rabinovitch asked for a sentence of two or two-and-a-half years.
Rabinovitch said Bullock grew up in a household “as unenvious as one could possibly imagine."
“He’s had nobody to really point him in the right direction,” Rabinovitch told the court. “(He is) a good person with a good heart who has just been crushed by life.”
Bullock said he wants to be a working, contributing member of society and wants to complete high school.
“I want to change my life and be a positive influence,” he told the court.
Bullock is scheduled to be sentenced May 10.
