REGINA – An inmate at a provincial jail chose to attack his cellmate instead of going to guards for help and breaking an inmate code, the court heard.
Phillip Lionel Levac was found guilty in Regina Provincial Court on Feb. 14 of aggravated assault against Christopher Orville Lavelle in January 2021.
“Going to a guard is not a good thing to do,” Levac testified. “Because it might get you past that one situation but then it puts a label on you that’s going to follow you everywhere you go and that never goes away. So then instead of facing a problem you can see in front of you, you are faced with a whole host of problems down the road that you might not see coming. That’s when people die because they don’t see that they are going to try and hurt you, and they do”
Levac also testified that if other inmates knew he went to the guards, it would make him a pariah in jail and he once saw a guy on the range jumped for being a rat.
“No one is going to help you. No one is going to come to your side or your defence or anything like that. And just like I said you could go to a range and then have a whole bunch of people there know you are a rat, the slang term rat, for someone who tells on people. And then they won’t tell you, ‘oh yeah we know this,’ they will just go at you. Right. So you don’t see it coming. You are not prepared for it.”
Levac had been an inmate on the One Delta unit at Regina Correctional Centre for approximately six to eight months prior to the assault. One Delta is a protective custody remand unit for sex offenders, former gang members, and other inmates who aren’t considered compatible with other inmates at the Regina Correctional Centre.
Levac was on One Delta after being convicted in June 2020 of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl twice in 2018.
The court heard that Levac believed other inmates at the correctional centre knew he was in custody for a sexual offence due to the amount of media attention his case had received. Before he assaulted his cellmate he had problems with other inmates because of his status as a sexual offender.
“Some guys take offence to it,” Levac testified. “It could get you killed. It could get you beat up.”
During Levac’s sexual assault trial in 2020, the court heard that he approached the young teen at a weight room in the Lawson Aquatic Centre and offered to help train her. He was 31 at the time.
In 2017, Regina Police released Levac’s photo and warned the public that Levac would be residing in a north central Regina neighbourhood. Police said he had a history of violent sexual offences.
Levac testified that Lavelle told him that he had to leave the range.
“He was telling me to pack my sh .”
Levac told Lavelle he was not going to leave the range, saying, “I’m not going anywhere."
Lavelle responded with words to the effect that Levac was not going to have a choice, the court heard.
Levac responded. “Well, you can’t make me.”
Levac testified that Lavelle said, “I’m going to get my shank and make you leave.”
Levac testified that when he struck Lavelle he feared that if he didn’t hurt Lavelle, then Lavelle would get a shank (homemade knife) and hurt him.
Regina Provincial Court Judge Murray Hinds ruled that he believed Levac felt there was a real threat against him and he “acted for the purpose of defending himself,” but said Levac’s use of force wasn’t reasonable in the circumstances.
“The additional 25 strikes delivered to Lavelle by Levac and in particular the 17 downward strikes that Levac delivered in rapid succession to the back of Lavelle’s head and upper body area were disproportionate, to Lavelle’s threat of getting a knife.”
Video evidence from the jail showed Levac strike Lavelle on the back of his head and continue to beat him. Lavelle was bleeding for some time, which began during the altercation and continued when the guards arrived and while he was escorted down two flights of stairs to the infirmary, the court heard.
“In this case Levac chose to honour a prison code he felt bound by and take matters into his own hands by striking Levac and inflicting a serious beating on him, rather than go to corrections staff with his safety concerns,” said Judge Hinds in his written ruling.
“Levac could have easily gone to the C.O.s with his safety concerns. Levac was not locked up. Lavelle was walking away from him towards cell 306. Levac could have simply walked in the opposite direction and descended the stairs to the C.O.s.”
For Levac’s 2020 sexual assault conviction against the girl, the Regina Crown is seeking to have him labeled as a dangerous offender. The hearing is scheduled for May.
