Man pleads guilty to aggravated assault
By Shurtz, Delon on June 10, 2020.
Delon Shurtz
lethbridge herald
Shortly before midnight on Dec. 5, 2019 a residential surveillance camera captured a 16-year-old boy and 18-year-old woman walking down a dark alley just off Mayor Magrath Drive North.
As they were walking, two people ran up to them from behind, followed by two more, and the teenager was knocked to the ground, where he was brutally assaulted and stabbed. A fifth assailant stood back for a few seconds then joined the fray, which lasted about 30 seconds and left the victim beaten and bloody.
Alexander Roxby Styra, the 20-year-old man who joined the attack shortly after the others, pleaded guilty Tuesday in Lethbridge provincial court to a charge of aggravated assault, and admitted participating in the beating. He didn’t, however, have a knife or a toy handgun, which police found later during a search of a nearby apartment.
“The accused states he, at no time, possessed a BB air-pistol pellet gun or a knife, and had no knowledge of any person possessing them prior to the assault on the complainant,” Crown Prosecutor Darwyn Ross told court.
But, Ross pointed out, Styra was a party to the offence and charged along with two teenage boys and 18-year-old Trinity Savard, whose matters are still before the court.
The victim was taken to the Chinook Regional Hospital with stab wounds to his back and suspected paralysis in one leg. He was then flown by STARS air ambulance to Calgary.
Ross said the boy still faces months of rehabilitation and treatment but is doing reasonably well considering his early prognosis.
Styra also faced one count of motor vehicle theft but instead he pleaded guilty to one count of theft over $5,000.
During their investigation of the assault, police found a van that had been stolen Dec. 5 from a business on 13 Street North. The van was found parked behind an apartment building at 210 Mayor Magrath Dr. N., and inside one of the apartments police found a BB gun hidden in the oven, a three-inch folding knife – stained with the victim’s DNA – hidden above a window in one of the bedrooms, and the victim’s cellphone that was hidden in the toilet.
Styra, court was told, was impaired by alcohol and drugs at the time of the attack. His lawyer, Shaun Leochko of Calgary, said his client is dealing with addictions and hopes to be accepted in a residential treatment centre.
Judge Paul Pharo ordered a pre-sentence report, which will provide him and the lawyers with personal information about the accused to help determine a fit sentence. The matter returns to court July 27 to check on the progress of the PSR, and to set a date for a sentencing hearing.
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