Man who attacked Journal/Sun security guard, damaged Pulitzer display apologizes in court
Edmonton Canada December 7 2019
A man who admitted to assaulting a security guard at the Edmonton Journal and Edmonton Sun building earlier this year apologized in court Friday, saying he was hallucinating at the time.
Willie Jay Severight, 50, pleaded guilty in Edmonton mental health court earlier this fall to mischief and aggravated assault. He appeared in court Friday for a sentencing hearing.
According to facts read into the court record, Severight walked into the downtown newspaper building the morning of May 14 and began to strike the walls with a 21-inch metal pole. In the process, he damaged an air vent and destroyed a display housing the Journal’s Pulitzer Prize.
Collin Taylor, a security officer who works at the front desk, called police and approached Severight, asking him to leave the building. Severight struck him in the side of the head with the pole. Taylor fled outside and fell to the ground, where Severight struck him twice more in the head. A motorist and several bystanders stopped to help, causing Severight to flee back inside.
Two police officers arrived and tried to get Severight to drop the pole. He refused, gesturing toward the wall and saying he had to help “the children.” He was sweating, speaking quickly and appeared to be on drugs. The officers eventually took him to the ground and arrested him.
Taylor was taken to hospital and discharged the same day. Severight, who was also taken to hospital, had little recollection of the events but did not dispute what happened.
Provincial court Judge Renée Cochard said the case exemplifies the effects of the “deinstitutionalization” of mentally ill people.
“What has happened here over the years is the criminal justice system has taken over from the mental health system,” she said. “It’s really difficult.”
Crown prosecutor Kevin Komosky argued for a sentence of 31 months, less time served, to denounce and deter Severight’s crimes. Komosky said that length of time would put Severight in the federal corrections system, which has better programming and mental health care.
Komosky noted Severight had been released from custody a few weeks earlier on another offence. Severight has three prior convictions for aggravated assault dating back to 2013, he said.
Defence attorney Mark Grotski said Severight, who has been in custody since his arrest, should be released on time served. He said a probation treatment order could address concerns about Severight’s mental health and substance use.
Grotski added it is pointless to emphasize deterrence in sentencing in a case where the offender was clearly “out of touch with reality.” Severight spoke briefly in court, saying he was looking for his son and believed there were kidnapped children in the building.
Grotski added Severight himself is a residential school survivor, along with his parents and grandparents. A Gladue report was prepared to consider Severight’s Indigenous background in sentencing.
Cochard said she had to balance maintaining public safety with addressing Severight’s underlying issues. She said she was cognizant of the “criminalization of mental illness,” but added this “was a serious assault … to an individual who just happened to be doing his job.”
Severight submitted a letter to Cochard and added he “wanted to say sorry” to Taylor.
Cochard plans to give her decision on sentencing Dec. 23.
