Photo: Castanet employees
Bullet riddled house on Kelowna’s Coronation Avenue in 2018.
A Kelowna man who fired a gun multiple times in a house in a drug-induced psychotic episode has successfully appealed his verdict after the trial judge failed to properly explain his tragic upbringing and indigenous background.
Coda Dayne Gheslain Hiscock, 33, was sentenced to six years in prison in May for shooting in a house on Coronation Avenue in March 2018.
The British Columbia Court of Appeals overturned that judgment on Friday and reduced it to five years.
“I conclude that the judge made a mistake in principle by failing to apply the Gladue factors in this case, as they relate to Mr. Hiscock as an Aboriginal offender,” said Judge Mary Saunders in one Judgment that was supported by the other two judges on the appeals panel.
On the night of March 10, 2018, Hiscock fired at least seven rounds from a semi-automatic banned firearm in a small house. Three of the shots hit a parked car outside while the others peppered the inside of the residence.
Hiscock had used methamphetamine earlier in the day, with evidence strongly suggesting that “by the time he shot the gun he was high and possibly in a psychotic or manic state”.
Before the shooting, he had a “moderate” criminal record for property, drug and violent crimes, but had never even come close to serving the federal period (more than two years).
Hiscock’s grandparents attended residential schools and his First Nations mother had “numerous dysfunctional relationships with men who drank, used drugs and behaved violently toward her.”
Hiscock’s father left the family shortly after he was born.
Hiscock was 28 years old when he discovered his mother had died of a drug overdose. He also lost a nephew to overdose. Six months after Hiscock’s death, one of his brothers was murdered.
Six months before the shooting, Hiscock’s girlfriend, Russia Nicholson, was the victim of a murder in Kelowna that has not yet been resolved.
The majority of Hiscock’s friends and family are involved in criminal activity, court documents say.
“Unfortunately, for a number of reasons, Coda had a childhood that included many traits of Canada’s indigenous people, including witness and victim of physical and emotional abuse, insecurity, instability, early exposure to alcohol and substance abuse, and a general loss of his cultural heritage” says a Gladue report on Hiscock.
Gladue reports are prepared for indigenous offenders to provide judging context and additional background during the sentencing.
The British Columbia Court of Appeals ruled that the original judge did not properly consider the “significant role” the gladue factors played in Hiscock’s criminal activities.
“Hiscock’s drug abuse follows from long-term drug abuse at a young age, and more recently his mother died from a drug overdose,” the appeals court ruled. “At a minimum, it is the kind of connection between Mr. Hiscock’s current circumstances and his Aboriginal status that requires an open consideration of his moral guilt.”
The appeals court overturned the six-year sentence in favor of a five-year prison sentence. Hiscock has one year and 319 days to serve his sentence.
