A five-year jail sentence handed to his attacker has done little to allay the bitter feelings of 70-year-old Ron Perry, who lost an eye in a brutal beating connected to a marijuana grow-op.
"I wanted to come and let him know I'm still thinking of him," said Perry outside North Vancouver provincial court Monday, where Judge Steven Merrick handed the jail sentence to Paul Joseph Defaveri.
"I hope I'm still around when he gets out," added Perry.
"Maybe one day he'll be back here and I'll be the one standing in front of the judge."
Merrick said Defaveri deserved a significant prison term for the attack on Perry, which took place over about eight hours in a North Vancouver bungalow in September of 2009.
Defaveri, 51, was convicted in August of aggravated assault in connection with the violent beating tied to marijuana grow-ops on the North Shore.
During the trial, Perry described in horrific detail how on Sept. 2, 2009, he was hit on the head from behind with a hammer, and had his eyes gouged with someone's fingers.
His attacker told him, "'I'm going to pop it like a grape,'" Perry told the judge during the trial.
Evidence in the case included blood spatter patterns on the ceiling.
Perry was later bound with zap straps before being stuffed in a vehicle and driven to Vancouver, where a passerby found him inside a car with a bag over his head.
Perry said he had gone to the house on Philip Avenue to try to make a deal with a crime boss who was angry about Perry's earlier involvement in a grow-rip of a marijuana operation in Lions Bay.
Perry never saw who hit him from behind, although he said Defaveri - one of two men living in the house - was present when the attack began.
Merrick said Defaveri's fingerprint in Perry's blood was compelling evidence of his involvement in the violence.
A second man charged in the case was found not guilty.
Perry suffered serious injuries in the attack including losing one eye and being partially blinded in the other, along with a skull fracture. He spent 11 days in hospital.
Perry said he still has loss of memory and dizzy spells and can't see well enough to read with his remaining eye.
He added he doesn't expect to ever see the $5,600 the judge ordered Defaveri to pay him in compensation.
jseyd@nsnews.com
