Quinte Consolidated Courthouse in Belleville. (Quinte News File Photo: Nicole Kleinsteuber)
The sentencing hearing of a Marmora woman found guilty of kidnapping, robbing and assaulting a man who allegedly stole money from her has been adjourned until November.
On Wednesday, Jessica Youmans appeared before Justice Wolf Tausendfreund, who put off sentencing until a Gladue report can be completed.
Assistant Crown Attorney Lynn Ross told the court there has been some ‘difficulty’ getting it completed however she says the pre-sentence report is done and she has been assured the report will be finished for sentencing on November 3. Lawyer Darren Avery who was speaking for Youmans on behalf of her counsel John Bonn, stated she consents to adjourning the matter to facilitate the reports completion.
Ross told Quinte News the Gladue report is important and is meant to present Justice Tausendfreund with a picture of Youmans’ background to see if there were any effects of the traditional disadvantages associated with being brought up in the Indigenous culture in Canada.
She pointed to how the report takes into account the generational impacts of the residential school system and other factors that have impacted Indigenous people.
“Obviously she (Youmans) wasn’t in a residential school,” Ross admitted. “But the impact of that event has a ripple effect like throwing a stone in a pond.”
Youmans was charged following an overnight incident in January 2015, when she was accused of breaking into the home of Stan McGovern and his girlfriend. She was found guilty of beating him, taking him to her home and forcing him to pay back $200 she alleges he stole.
