Crown suggests two year sentence in Warwick manslaughter

Blake Ellis/Local Journalism Initiative

Tina George wishes she had never gone out the night she stabbed Jesse Storr in a Warwick Village home.

“But what would have happened to my sister,” said George.

Her words came from a a pre-sentence report as Justice Bruce Thomas heard from her lawyer, Richard Braiden, and the Crown Attorney Melanie Nancekievill Feb. 4 in Sarnia Superior Court. George, 38, pled guilty to manslaughter last October in the death of Jesse Storr. 

Nancekievill suggested George should be sentenced to two years less a day – to avoid federal prison – saying her actions were “near self-defence.”

George’s lawyer suggested house arrest or a suspended sentence.

Storr, 29, was found injured in his Egremont Road home the afternoon of April 29, 2018 after hours of partying and a chaotic, drug and alcohol-fueled confrontation.

Storr and Tina George knew each other. Storr had three children with one of George’s sisters. They divorced and Storr began dating another sister. She was at the party with Tina George and Storr that night.

Both relationships with George’s sisters were described as “tumultuous,” marred by both verbal and physical abuse. Storr’s girlfriend at the time of his death says he was “abusive, controlling and threatened to kill her if she ever left him.”

The root of Storr’s issues were attributed to addiction.

The night before the violent incident, Storr, Tina George, her sister and a few friends were drinking at bars and house parties in Sarnia and Forest, where they had all been getting along. Storr was consuming cocaine and crystal meth, while they all drank alcohol. The partying end by the early morning where the George sisters and Storr were alone in his apartment in Warwick and went to sleep. 

Storr woke up, had a violent fight in the bedroom with his girlfriend where he had punched, bit and threw the woman against a wall. She came out of the bedroom and her right eye was swollen shut. Tina George started to leave the apartment, walking with her sister down Egremont Road. Storr chases them before he broke George’s phone when she tried to call for help. He ripped his girlfriend’s shirt before dragging her back inside his home. 

Court heard Storr pushed Tina George down the stairs and slammed the door on her arm before she forced her way inside. 

While Storr sat on the couch with his girlfriend, George went to kitchen and returned to the living room. Before her sister could look up, she heard him exclaim “Ow, what the (expletive) Tina.”

Storr was holding his chest. George admitted to driving a steak knife into him and had stabbed him twice in his legs. He managed to stand up, take a few steps before collapsing. 

Tina George’s lawyer says Storr was unpredictable and had been abusive when he had been drinking. Braiden said George was worried her sister’s life was in danger. 

Nancekievill says George took the time to get a knife from the kitchen so it was not an impulse. Storr was unarmed when he was stabbed. 

The court heard George has no criminal record and has gone almost four years without breaching any of the conditions of her bail as the case went through the court system.. 

Thomas will sentence George March 15.