A Guelph man who pleaded guilty to what the Crown described as an “unprovoked, brutal manslaughter” nearly three years ago has been sentenced to 15 years in jail.
Joseph ‘Joey’ Stafford, 43, learned his fate at Guelph’s Superior Court of Justice Wednesday.
The sentence on the manslaughter guilty plea comes almost three years after the incident. Stafford was originally charged with second-degree murder.
It comes after four victim impact statements were read into the court, courtesy the family of Alan ‘Jim’ Stemmler, who was killed the night of Feb. 21, 2022 at his home at 780 York Rd.
Stafford admitted to killing 59-year-old Stemmler with a baseball bat at a gathering at the home, where many were using drugs, including methamphetamines.
Stemmler’s niece, Lindsay Charles, read each statement in court on behalf of family members, including three of the victim’s sisters.
Colleen Keith talked about the night she woke up to her doorbell ringing, and two detectives at the door. She was informed of an incident that claimed the life of her brother.
She outlined what can only be described as a tragic family history.
Three of Jim’s seven siblings had died by the time Jim was seven, and there was a severe car accident involving their parents that left their mother with a brain injury.
“The thoughts of the tragedies that our family has endured often come to mind,” Keith said.
“The vision in mind of my youngest brother being beat to death with a baseball bat will forever sicken me.”
Keith said with the thought of having to tell her other siblings of Jim’s death, “Family Day will never be the same.”
Her husband Dennis Keith, added the family history is “more than any family should have to endure, and is a constant reminder of how fragile life really is.”
“Jim was an energetic, curious young man with a passion for mechanical things,” Dennis said.
“He was always working on something that would leave him covered in grease and oil.”
He said Jim never came across as a serious trouble maker and “most certainly did not deserve the punishment he received at the hand of his assailant.”
Barbara Illman said her brother was “a soft spoken and gentle boy growing up.”
She said Jim moved to Guelph to live at Yorkhaven, where he had a “fairly decent life for many years.”
He was helped with his vices and mental health by his sister Christina, but Jim “took a turn for the worse” after she passed away, and refused help.
“I never stopped thinking about my little brother Jim, and now all I think about is his death, and the circumstances around it,” Illman said.
“Not being able to say goodbye has really affected me, and my need for closure with the circumstances around his death.
“I am haunted by this. Nobody’s life should end the way that Jim’s was ended.”
She said she has a new sense of district for those she doesn’t know well.
“I can only hope that the accused is kept out of society for a very long time, and he get help,” she said.
Another sister, Lorie Gallucci, wrote “the tears flow when I recall the brutal circumstances of Jim’s death.”
“I constantly replay in my mind what I could have done to help him in those final moments, to shield him from the cruelty that led to his passing at home in Yorkhaven,” she wrote.
She said she prays for strength when thinking about the memories.
The manslaughter plea was accepted after it was determined there was “reasonable doubt about whether Mr. Stafford had the ability, at the time of the incident, to form the specific intent to kill, or the specific intent to cause bodily harm.”
Crown attorney Peter Keen noted Stafford’s troubled past, saying “it’s quite apparent” he suffers from serious mental health issues, which “largely appear to stem from his drug and alcohol abuse.”
“Jim Stemmler was somebody who was loved, but had substance abuse difficulty … for many years,” he said. “But he had done nothing to deserve this type of a response from Mr. Stafford.”
Stafford’s lawyer, Ranney Hintsa, added Stafford has had “a very hard go of it” since childhood.
She talked about Stafford being brought up in a dysfunctional family situation, but noted his mother was “extremely loving.”
Hintsa told the court Stafford spent time in group homes, and was institutionalized by age 11.
“That institutionalization hasn’t stopped,” she said, adding he had been abused and turned to drugs and alcohol to cope.
“It was clear that that day, it was clear from the facts that he was in a state of psychosis.”
Justice Clayton Conlan called the act “vicious, horrible (and) shocking.”
He noted Stafford’s “very difficult, very challenging” upbringing, his struggles with behavioural issues and his issues with ADHD, psychosis and schizophrenia.
But he said the sentence must send a message.
“Even a person who has mental health issues, even a person who has experienced a difficult upbringing, even a person who has substance abuse issues, like Mr. Stafford,” he said. “If that person commits this type of offence, that person will be sentenced to a lengthy penitentiary sentence.”
Stafford’s “very extensive criminal record” was brought up by Keen.
He noted it includes an excess of 75 convictions for violent and weapons-related offences.
“His criminal behaviour has lasted for, frankly, decades,” he said.
“Accordingly, there’s a real need to separate him from society for an extensive period of time.”
Conlan said “there is still hope” Stafford can get treatment for his “very serious mental health issues and the other problems that he has experienced for a long time.”
The joint submission from the Crown and defence was accepted by Conlan.
Stafford has been credited with 1,526 days in pre-sentence custody, which is 1.5 days given for every actual day served in jail.
He still has 3,949 days left to serve – which works out to be about 10 years and nine months – and will run concurrently with other sentences he is serving.
Stafford is also subject to a DNA order, as well as a lifetime firearms and weapons ban.
