Man gets prison on manslaughter conviction

By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman - Lethbridge Herald on September 9, 2023.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDapulido@lethbridgeherald.com

A Lethbridge man previously charged with murder, pleaded guilty to manslaughter Friday in Lethbridge court of justice and was sentenced to just under six years in prison.

 Jade Levi Trotter,38, attended Lethbridge court of justice in person on Friday, where Calgary lawyer Andrea Urquart in a joint submission with Crown Prosecutor Michael Fox, replaced his second-degree murder charge with a manslaughter charge to which he pleaded guilty.

 His charges stemmed from an incident where police responded to a call Feb. 8, 2021 of someone screaming for help and arrived at an apartment building in the 1200 block of 4 Avenue South to find the body of 65-year-old Glenn Lofthouse. Police arrested Trotter the following day at a residence in the 1100 block of 11 Street South.

Police said the suspect and victim knew each other, and the killing was over a property dispute. Police also recovered a weapon they believe was used to kill Lofthouse.

 Trotter, who previously elected to be tried by a Court of King’s Bench judge and jury, was scheduled to have a two-day preliminary hearing last October, but it was cancelled after the court ordered a forensic assessment under Section 672 of the Criminal Code. The accused was assessed at the Southern Alberta Forensic Psychiatry Centre in Calgary to determine whether there are grounds to believe he was, at the time of the alleged offence, suffering from a mental disorder that would exempt him from criminal responsibility.

 The report was provided on Feb. 21, 2023, and it determined that Trotter was fit to stand trial. The report also concluded that on Feb. 8, 2021, when Trotter entered Lofthouse’s apartment Trotter was suffering from a substance induced psychotic disorder and that he was experiencing the effects of self-imposed intoxication from the use of methamphetamine.

 “The prosecution acknowledges that Trotter lacked the ability to form the requisite intent for murder as defined by the Criminal Code of Canada,” said Fox.

 Fox went on to tell the court that Trotter’s criminal record was 22 pages-long and contained 112 convictions under the Criminal Code and Controlled Drugs and Substance Act and he accumulated this criminal record between May 12, 1,999 and Apr. 20, 2021.

 “Of those 112 convictions your honour, the vast majority, the overwhelming majority are for property related offences and breaches of court orders. There are only three convictions for violence in his record,” said Fox.

 He then proceeded to tell the court what case law they used to come up with the joint submission and based on the case law presented to the court Fox said they believed the appropriate range for sentencing would be somewhere between four and eight years of prison.

 “Our sentence, your honour, is just shy of the six-year range… the total sentence we propose of this court is a total of 2,132 days. It seems like an odd number, but it has a specific purpose. The 2,132 days works out to about 5.9 years roughly, from that he is entitled to enhanced credit of 1,413 days, that would leave him with 719 days to serve, two years less a day,” said Fox.

 He said they came to this sentencing proposal based on how apparent it was from the report that Trotter was remorseful for what his substance abuse made him capable of.

 “Mr. Trotter was excessively remorseful that his substance abuse had got him to the point where he could not just commit a violent act but commit a violent act against someone that he considered to be a friend, and the violent act was beyond anything that he had done in the past in relation to violence,” said Fox.

 Trotter’s lawyer Andrea Urquart told the court the mitigating factor in this case was the guilty plea that was entered even though it was a recent submission.

 “Upon receiving the report from Alberta Health Services, this matter was then negotiated and we were able to set this matter for a disposition, and so it’s not an early guilty plea given the amount of time that he is spent in custody, as the date of the Alberta health services reported February of 2023 and we tried to move quickly through that after we received it to resolve it, so the guilty plea here is importantly mitigating in my respectful submission,” said Urquart.

 Calgary judge Fred A. Day thanked both council for a very helpful submission and accepted the joint submission.

 “I impose a sentence of 2,132 days less credit of 1,413 days, leaving a balance to serve as of today of 719 days. There will be a DNA order and a lifetime weapons prohibition pursuant to section 109, forfeiture of all items seized, and the victim fine surcharge is waved,” said Day.

 – with files from Delon Shurtz

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