Trial starts into gang-style attack
By Delon Shurtz on April 8, 2021.
LETHBRIDGE HERALDdshurtz@lethbridgeherald.com A Lethbridge teenager was just looking for some marijuana and a good time when he met Trinity Savard for the first time on Dec. 5, 2019.The 16-year-old boy and his girlfriend hoped to buy some weed and find another person for a “threesome,” and had arranged to meet Savard after the boy accepted her friend request on Facebook.
The teen and his girlfriend walked to a northside strip mall, but after waiting for some time, Savard never showed up. They returned to his home and called Savard, who said she was drunk and running late, but she would be there.
The boy returned alone to the arranged meeting place, met Savard, and after a brief discussion they began walking to her house to get the marijuana. He never made it that far.
As they walked down a dark alley, a group of people ran up behind them, knocked the boy to the ground and began kicking and punching him. One of the attackers also stabbed him.
Savard, 19, was charged with aggravated assault, and Wednesday during her trial in Lethbridge provincial court, she listened to the boy describe the vicious gang-style attack.
“They were all kicking and punching me,” he testified. Then one of his attackers got on top of him and stabbed him three times in the back.
A nerve in his spinal column was damaged and he was paralyzed from the waist down, he told the judge.
He was flown to a Calgary hospital where he remained for several months. Today he doesn’t show any outward signs of his injuries, but he said walking is still difficult and he has lost some of his balance. He also has randomly shooting pain that begins in his thigh.
The attack was recorded on a residential security camera, which was played in court and showed a group of people running up behind Savard and the boy, then knocking the boy to the ground. He said the group fled moments later, after “I heard a woman screaming out of a window.”
The woman is seen on the video shortly afterward walking up to the boy, who is still lying in the alley and unable to move. After she discovers his stab wounds, she calls an ambulance.
Crown Prosecutor Adam Zelmer is expected to call several witnesses during the three-day trial, including civilians and police. Calgary lawyer Andre Ouellette said during a break in the trial Wednesday he may only call a couple of witnesses.
A 20-year-old man who was considered a party to the offence, was charged with aggravated assault and theft over $5,000. He pleaded guilty to the charges in June and was sentenced in September to 16 months in jail, minus 13 1/2 months for time he spent in pre-trial custody. Two teenage boys were also charged in relation to the attack. Follow @DShurtzHerald on Twitter 4
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