Young Man Who Threw Trailer Hitch to an Indigenous Woman Found Guilty of Manslaughter

The young man who threw a trailer hitch to an Indigenous woman was found guilty of manslaughter after the woman died six months later.

Following a four-day trial last month, Superior Court Justice Helen Pierce released her ruling against Brayden Bushby on Monday, according to a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's report.

The suspect, 21, had already pleaded guilty to aggravated assault. Bushby admitted that he threw the object that struck Barbara Kentner from a passing vehicle. The aggravated assault charge has been maintained due to the manslaughter conviction.

Kentner was a 34-year-old mother. She hailed from Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation and died on July 4, 2017.

"I am satisfied that the Crown has proven beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Bushby's action, in striking Ms. Kentner with the trailer hitch, was a contributing cause of her death that is not trivial or insignificant and which accelerated her death," Pierce said in a CBC report.

Pierce told the court that it would have been foreseeable to Bushby that hitting a person with such a heavy object would cause serious injury.

Pierce delivered her decision while also referencing a witness testimony that Bushby said, "I got one," after striking the victim.

The witness added that the suspect then laughed after throwing the hitch and told friends earlier he wanted to throw it through the window of an acquaintance's house.

The judge noted that those accounts proved that Bushby knew the hitch could do significant damage. She added that the suspect was aiming to hit one of the women walking on the street as his vehicle drove by, according to a Yahoo News report.

Bushby was 18 at the time of the attack. He admitted throwing the hitch and pleaded guilty to aggravated assault. However, he pleaded not guilty to manslaughter.

During the trial, Bushby's lawyer cast doubt at Kentner's real cause of death, citing the victim's underlying health conditions. However, Pierce accepted the argument that Bushby is responsible for what happened to Kentner after he assaulted her despite Kentner's poor health to start with.

The judge also accepted evidence from the pathologist, who testified that the victim's health was clearly in rapid decline after the attack, as stated in medical records.

Kentner was walking with her sister on the side of an east end residential street in the early morning hours of Jan. 29, 2017. She was then struck in the abdomen by the trailer hitch. The force of the hitch hitting her knocked her to her knees.

Later that day, she underwent emergency surgery. She was discharged from the hospital against medical advice on Feb. 4, 2017. However, she returned on Feb. 10, and stayed until late March, when she was released for palliative care at home.

She was then required medical care for the rest of her life after the incident. Kentner had numerous underlying living conditions. However, her cause of death was due to the rupture of her bowel brought by a blunt force of trauma, according to the testimony of pathologist Dr. Toby Rose.