The man who pled guilty to the Jan. 21 robbery of the Queen's Hotel in Battleford was sentenced to five and a half years behind bars Tuesday.
Carter Night had earlier pled guilty to robbery and four other charges. In provincial court, Night was admonished by Judge Dan O'Hanlon for his role in the robbery, in which he beat the female victim with a baseball bat, allowing his co-conspirator to enter and steal liquor from behind the counter.
This was a "senseless, cowardly, vicious attack," O'Hanlon said.
He said the violence committed by Night was "unnecessary, gratuitous, excessive and could have been fatal."
O'Hanlon referred to the surveillance video from the hotel shown during sentencing arguments presented two weeks before. The judge noted the video showed the victim standing behind the counter and showed Night connecting his bat to the right hand side of her jaw.
He noted Night continued to repeatedly strike the victim, a hotel staff member, by landing several blows.
"At no time did you merely threaten her," O'Hanlon said. Instead, Night continued to beat her with a bat. The judge noted he also swung at another young woman coming to the victim's assistance.
The judge also referred to the victim impact statement and the impact of the injuries suffered. The woman had to have metal plate inserted in her jaw and it was wired shut.
"You could have killed her with the force of the initial blow," O'Hanlon said from the bench, with Night looking from the prisoner box.
The judge said Night was assessed as a high risk to reoffend, and voiced concern about the high level of violence and the planning and forethought put into the offence.
In imposing the sentence, O'Hanlon credited Night with six months remand time, meaning Night will serve a remaining five and a half years behind bars. As well, Night received fours months concurrent on the charges of assault on a peace officer, failure to appear and two breaches of undertakings, which the judge deemed as time served in remand.
In addition, Night was hit with a lifetime weapons prohibition and was ordered to forfeit his weapons to the RCMP. A DNA sample was also ordered.
Night is just one of several co-accused to be arrested in connection to the Queen's Hotel incident.
