A Red Deer man charged in a near-fatal sword attack in September pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and assault with a weapon on Thursday in Red Deer provincial court.
The victim, a Rocky Mountain House man who was 22 at the time of the attack, suffered deep and wide gashes to his neck, back and torso from the attack that occurred outside, in north Red Deer, around 4:10 a.m. on Sept. 4.
Dylan Cameron Huhn, 21, also pleaded guilty to failure to comply with a court condition not to consume alcohol.
In his victim-impact statement, the Rocky man said he is still traumatized, can’t sleep, has no feeling on the left side of his head and still suffers pain.
“I have scars that will never go away. I always wonder whether they’ll attack again,” said the statement, which was read aloud in court by Crown prosecutor Robin Joudrey.
Joudrey told Judge Jim Hunter that Huhn should be sentenced to five to seven years in jail.
“You’ve seen the pictures sir. Basically, (the victim) is lucky to be alive,” said Joudrey after submitting photos of the victim’s wounds.
Defence lawyer Laurie Wood, of Edmonton, said Huhn was not feeling well, tired from working and took pills offered to him at a party to help him feel better prior to the attack. He didn’t know what kind of pills he took, combined them with alcohol and couldn’t remember the attack.
“He couldn’t recall doing what he’d done,” Wood told the court.
Huhn and the victim knew each other and Huhn was remorseful, said Wood, who recommended a three-to-five-year jail sentence.
In connection to a June 2009 attack with a baseball bat, Huhn pleaded guilty to possession of a weapon.
Joudrey said the man who was hit in the head with the bat was trying to retrieve his watch, which was stolen and put up for sale on a classified site on the Internet.
Wood said Huhn was at the residence where the watch was for sale. The victim was armed with a knife and looking for a fight.
Huhn will be sentenced on April 15.
A 17-year-old male involved the sword attack was sentenced in December to 10 months in jail followed by five months of open custody under close supervision.