A man who has pleaded guilty to manslaughter in Vancouver's 18th homicide of 2021 should go to prison for four years, a B.C. Supreme Court judge heard July 25.
Kenneth Michael Desjarlais, 59, was charged with second-degree murder in connection with the Dec. 22, 2021 stabbing death of Fernand Uregel Regimbal, 52.
Police were called to the Hazelwood Hotel, near Hastings and Dunlevy streets, just after 9:30 a.m. that day for reports that a man had been stabbed outside the hotel.
Desjarlais pleaded guilty before B.C. Supreme Court Justice Geoffrey Gomery in May, Crown prosecutor Jenny Dyck told Justice Wendy Baker in sentencing submissions.
Dyck said the Saskatchewan man and his cousin had come to B.C. and were staying at a shelter on Vancouver’s Comox Street.
On the day of Regimbal’s death, she said the two had made their way to the Downtown Eastside and headed to a pharmacy where they met a third man.
They proceeded down East Hastings to the Hazelwood Hotel at 344 East Hastings St. where they met Regimbal.
Dyck told Baker Regimbal was a full-time resident of the area and made a living off street-level drug trafficking.
The meeting was recorded on video from the New Fountain Shelter at 356 East Hastings St.
Dyck said there was a brief exchange after which the trio walked away. Regimbal followed as they all walked west.
He met up with them at the corner, a meeting almost out of camera view but seen by a witness.
Dyck said the witness described Desjarlais making a jabbing motion toward Regimbal who then frantically ran out into the street before returning to the sidewalk and collapsing.
“That jabbing motion was, in fact, Mr. Desjarlais stabbing one time (Regimbal) in the side of the chest with a hunting knife,” Dyck said.
She said bystanders rushed in to help as Regimbal lay on the sidewalk.
“That is ultimately where Mr. Regimbal dies,” Dyck said.
By the time police and paramedics arrived, Regimbal was non-responsive. He was pronounced dead at hospital.
An autopsy found Regimbal died as a result of a single stab wound that injured his pulmonary artery near his heart.
Dyck said he was distanced from his family and no one had provided a victim impact statement.
“There is no one here to speak for him,” she said.
Dyck said Desjarlais should serve four years in prison for the offence as well as probation with orders for a DNA sample and a weapons ban, among other conditions.
