Anand-Ford to be sentenced Aug. 28

By Medicine Hat News on May 18, 2019.

Aaron Anand-Ford, who was convicted of manslaughter in February, will be sentenced Aug. 28.

Anand-Ford was originally charged with second-degree murder in relation to the 2016 homicide of 24-year-old Dustin Hewer, whom he stabbed 13 times after the victim charged at his friend – Jacob Porfoun – with a baseball bat.

The jury found Anand-Ford not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter.

Derek Jugnauth, counsel for Anand-Ford, had argued his client was acting in defence of Porfoun and didn’t intend to kill Hewer, but did so in the heat of the moment after being provoked.

Jugnauth argued security footage from the doorbell of the home where Hewer met his fate shows Anand-Ford attempting to defuse the situation by inserting himself between Hewer and Porfoun.

The Crown argued that if Anand-Ford indeed wanted to defuse the situation, he would have called the police, or left the residence when Hewer showed up with a bat.

Instead, he left Porfoun outside to face Hewer, while Anand-Ford went inside the house to grab the knife he used to stab the victim.

Porfoun received a prison sentence of six-and-a-half years after pleading guilty to manslaughter in June 2017 in relation to the incident.