CANADA • Tristian DUNSFORD, 9 ~ Little Grand Rapids MB

‘Ceaseless’ child killer
Gets max youth sentence for near decapitation
March 18, 2011

A Manitoba teen slashed a nine-year-old boy’s throat just to see him die, a court heard Friday.

The now 18-year-old man previously pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to seven years custody and community supervision, the maximum sentence allowed under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

Tristian Dunsford died June 28, 2008, in Little Grand Rapids.

The accused was babysitting three of the victim’s young cousins when he attacked Tristian in a bedroom, Crown attorney Kusham Sharma told court.

The accused tried choking Tristian and smothering him with a pillow before stabbing at his neck with a butter knife. When the knife failed to penetrate Tristian’s skin, the accused grabbed a filleting knife and sawed at his neck, severing his jugular vein and nearly decapitating him.

Searchers discovered Tristian’s body hours later, hidden in a crawlspace.

The accused was “ceaseless in his efforts to bring about death,” said Justice Lea Duval. “This nine-year-old child suffered an agonizing and terrifying death.”

The accused has been diagnosed as “mildly retarded,” with an IQ of 67, and suffers from fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD), court was told.

Questioned by police, the accused had little explanation for the attack, except to say “he wanted to try it out” and that he “felt nothing” after Tristian was dead.

The accused hauled water from a nearby lake to clean up the murder scene.

“For all the blood-letting that happened ... (there was) very little forensic evidence,” Sharma said.

According to a pre-sentence report, the accused told a probation officer “he thought he was going to be able to cover up his crime” and said he “ran out of time and did not do a good enough cleanup job.”

“Had he had enough time, he advised he would have chopped up and either buried or burned the body,” the report said.

Defence lawyer Bill Armstrong said the accused lives in a fantasy world that includes claims he earns money fighting and selling drugs.

“This comes from his imagination,” Armstrong said.

According to the pre-sentence report, the accused associates manhood with violence and “coolness” and remains a very high risk to re-offend.

The Crown agreed not to seek an adult sentence for the accused in exchange for his guilty plea. Sharma said RCMP investigators failed to advise the accused of his right to have a lawyer present during questioning, meaning his statement would likely have been inadmissible at trial.

The accused received two years credit for time served. His remaining five-year sentence will include 20 months under community supervision.

http://www.winnipegsun.com/news/manitoba/2011/03/18/17678271.html