A West Vancouver man who stabbed an acquaintance multiple times with a steak knife during a parking lot fight has been sentenced to five months in jail.
Francesco Michael Cartocci, 19, was handed the jail sentence Wednesday by Judge Joanne Challenger after Cartocci pleaded guilty to aggravated assault in North Vancouver provincial court.
Crown counsel Victoria Hanna described the fight that started as a verbal argument on the phone Oct. 7, 2015, after the respective girlfriends of
Cartocci and stabbing victim Mark Webber exchanged text messages.
After Webber threatened on the phone to beat up Cartocci, Cartocci responded by saying “Where are you? Let’s fight.”
The two men agreed to meet in the parking lot of the McDonald’s restaurant at Park Royal South. But the physical fight quickly turned serious.
Cartocci pushed Webber violently back into an electrical box, said Hanna, resulting in a large gash to his head.
Soon after, Webber realized he’d been stabbed.
Witnesses, including a couple who arrived in the parking lot just as the fight started, described seeing Webber bleeding. “There was a lot of blood streaming from a stab wound,” said Hanna.
A friend of Webber’s who had come to the parking-lot fight with him jumped in and wrestled with Cartocci, who responded by biting him.
Eventually Cartocci got free, dropped the knife and ran away. He later turned himself in to police.
Webber was rushed to Lions Gate Hospital with stab wounds to his chest, back, shoulder and abdomen, including a laceration to his spleen.
He was discharged from hospital after five days.
In court Hanna told the judge that Cartocci’s decision to bring a knife with a five-inch blade to the fight was an aggravating factor in the case. “He did use it and inflicted considerable harm on the victim,” she said.
Defence lawyer Matthew Nathanson said Cartocci brought the knife because he was concerned Webber would bring other people as backup to the fight.
“He was not intending to drive to the parking lot to stab someone,” he said.
He added Cartocci was just 18 when the fight happened, has no criminal record and has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, which makes him prone to impulsive behaviour.
A psychological report described Cartocci as a low risk for violence.
In sentencing Cartocci, Challenger noted he had taken significant steps to turn his life around since the stabbing.
She ordered him to serve two years’ probation following the jail term. Cartocci must obey a curfew for the first year of that. He must also attend counselling as directed by a probation officer, stay away from alcohol and non-prescription drugs and have no contact with the victim, the victim’s family or the victim’s girlfriend.
