Nikita Dedam sentenced to 9 years in prison for fatal stabbing
CBC
A woman is facing nine years in prison for fatally stabbing 34-year-old Christopher Dedam.
Nikita Marie Dedam, 36, of Esgenoôpetitj First Nation was originally set to stand trial last year on a charge of second-degree murder but pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter.
On Monday, Justice Fred Ferguson sentenced her to 11 years, minus time served, for killing Chris Dedam in Esgenoôpetitj on Aug. 25, 2020.
Over the course of the sentencing hearing on Monday, Justice Ferguson said it's difficult to balance Nikita Dedam's life circumstances — the abuse she experienced from family, leaving home before she was 12 and her addiction to alcohol since she was 11 — with her lengthy and violent criminal record.
She was previously convicted of five offences, three of which involved stabbing two men at different times in her life.
"As blunt an instrument as the imposition of a lengthy term of imprisonment is, it remains, given Ms. Dedam's criminal record … the only tool left in the trial judge's toolbox to try to protect the public from recurrent behaviour," Ferguson said before handing down the sentence.
As the Crown prosecutor was outlining her criminal record, Dedam spoke up and said these convictions involved domestic abuse, and she fears they're being twisted against her.
Justice Ferguson said the sentence will be for this case alone, but he has to take her past into consideration.
"The fact that they're stabbings ... is used to get a complete picture of who you are as a person," he said.
Ferguson said a letter sent to him by Dedam explaining her remorse and all the mistakes she made "resonated" with him, and he understands the difficulty faced by Indigenous offenders.
In her letter, Dedam wrote that a big mistake she made was changing her treatment plan to be closer to home, to move back to Esgenoôpetitj.
"The need to feel a connection with people I knew was greater than the chance of me relapsing, which happened when I moved back," she wrote.
"I'm guilty for taking [Chris Dedam] away from his family and now his children will grow up without a father. I couldn't imagine the pain his family is going through because of me. This guilt is something I'm going to have to live with for the rest of my life."
The Crown and defence, after disagreeing and delaying sentencing twice before, have agreed on the basic facts of the case.
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