A Crown prosecutor is urging that a man who kicked a stranger in the head during a bizarre incident of parking lot rage be sent to jail for 14 to 18 months.
Crown counsel Jason Krupa asked Judge Joanne Challenger to consider jail time at a sentencing hearing in North Vancouver provincial court April 14.
Krupa said Force McLellan Forsythe’s anger-fueled attack, which included a “goal kick” to the head of his victim, Philip Unger, could easily have killed him.
Krupa described Forsythe as a stocky young man with a history of aggressive behavior who came at his victim – a 53-year-old businessman who just been to a yoga class – at a run with “the full weight of his body” behind a punch in the face.
Once the older man fell to the pavement, Forsythe kicked him in the head. “You don’t kick a man when he’s down, but that is exactly what happened here,” said Krupa. “It was hardly a fair fight.”
Krupa said Forsythe “made up his mind very, very quickly he was going to inflict a significant amount of violence on this person regardless of what was going on.”
Forsythe, 30, faces sentencing after being found guilty of assault causing bodily harm during the incident which took place Feb. 15, 2014 in the parking lot near Whole Foods and Cactus Club in The Village at Park Royal.
Forsythe and his family had been out to dinner while Unger, his wife and teenage daughter were driving home after shopping at Whole Foods.
When Unger’s car approached a crosswalk Forsythe was walking on, Forsythe decided the driver was threatening him and spat on the windshield.
When Unger got out of the vehicle to confront him, the violent assault ensued. Unger was eventually taken to hospital with a broken nose and split lip requiring 28 stitches.
The attack was captured on store security video and seen by two independent witnesses.
During a trial heard in North Vancouver provincial court, Forsythe said he felt his family was being threatened by Unger’s driving. He also believed Unger was Middle Eastern or South Asian and said people from those cultures “don’t fight fair” and “are likely to carry knives to a fight.”
But Challenger determined there was nothing about either Unger’s driving or his actions that should have prompted Forsythe’s reaction, which she described as “delusory” and “to some extent … motivated by racial prejudice.”
She described Forsythe’s actions as “utterly unwarranted and vicious,” noting he referred to “fictional depictions such as movies and television to explain why he reacted the way he did.”
Krupa added Forsythe has a significant criminal record for violent behaviour and was on probation at the time of the attack.
Defence lawyer David Hopkins asked the judge to consider a conditional sentence to be served in the community, saying his client had used crack cocaine and crystal meth at times and had developed a “tough guy” persona to cover up his problems.
His history of violence, both in and out of prison, had conditioned him to “strike first,” said Hopkins.
Hopkins said Forsythe has had success in re-learning appropriate behaviour through counselling since the event.
Forsythe stood up at the sentencing and apologized for his actions. At the time, “I was not a mentally well man,” he said. “I was completely out of line.”
Challenger has reserved her decision until June.
