Calgary man pleads guilty to assault in Lacombe incident

A resolution has been reached in the case of a Calgary man charged in relation to an incident in Lacombe where one man was killed.

On December 9, 2015, then 23-year-old Jesse Vankroonenburgh was involved in a “consensual fight” at a house party. That fight eventually turned non-consensual, Red Deer court heard on Thursday.

Vankroonenburgh was then charged with, among other things, assault causing bodily harm. His guilty plea on Thursday to a lesser charge of assault was for punching and kicking a man, who Vankroonenburgh’s lawyer noted walked away with nothing but a black eye.

He also pleaded guilty to a charge of breaching conditions.

Vankroonenburgh was sentenced to a total 16 days in jail, satisfied by time served immediately following the incident in 2015 and by his court appearance Thursday.

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During his appearance, Vankroonenburgh, his counsel Maurice Collard, Justice Monica Bast and Crown Prosecutor Bina Border viewed a four-part video of the fight taken on a witness’ mobile phone. Though the video could not be viewed by the gallery, the audio included a girl screaming hysterically at the men, imploring them to stop fighting. The girl heard screaming also provided one of two victim impact statements.

Another man involved in the incident, 26-year-old Brent Forgie of Leduc, was killed. Lacombe Police Service called his death a homicide at the time.

Though calm to begin court proceedings, Vankroonenburgh choked back tears to tell the judge he was sorry for his actions, that he wants to put all of this behind him and that he lost a good friend that day.

Vankroonenburgh has two previous common assault convictions on his record, but his counsel stated that he has not drank or done drugs since the incident, that he has had steady employment since last December and that he is an active contributor to his family unit and to the community, helping recently to put a roof on a house with Habitat for Humanity.