Emotions ran high in a Saskatoon courtroom Thursday as a man charged in the 2014 death of Dustin Boulet entered guilty pleas.
Boulet died in hospital on Mar. 1, 2014, after being stabbed outside Bridges Ale House while trying to break up a fight.
He had been celebrating his 29th birthday that evening with friends.
Nathan Joseph, now 30, was originally charged with second-degree murder but pleaded guilty Thursday to manslaughter, as well as aggravated assault against two other men involved in the incident.
Things got tense when Boulet's father, Glenn, started yelling and screaming at members of Joseph's family in court.
Sheriffs escorted him and another man out of the courtroom, but the judge eventually let the grieving father back in to give a victim impact statement.
The teary-eyed father called his son "a peacemaker" and said his good memories of his boy have been replaced with the horror of that night.
"I live without hope," he said, adding he carries guilt and regret for not being able to prevent his son's death.
After the hearing, he said his family has been living in his son's apartment since his death.
"It's not an apartment, it's a shrine," Glenn Boulet said, his voice cracking. "That's what we deal with every day. Life doesn't go on."
The judge sentenced Joseph to 10 years in prison for the manslaughter charge and one year for each of the aggravated assault charges.
Glenn Boulet said he wished Joseph had been sentenced to 20 years for murder instead.
Joseph, originally from the Caribbean nation of Saint Lucia, was living in Canada illegally for two years before the incident and will be deported from Canada after his release.
(CKOM)
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