A late pre-sentencing report has delayed the sentencing of a man who pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the punching death of a Downtown Eastside man.
Jonathan James Payne was due before Vancouver provincial court Judge David St. Pierre Oct. 26. However, Crown prosecutor Tara Laker told St. Pierre the report was only received Oct. 21 despite being due Aug. 9.
Payne was charged in January of 2021 in connection with the death of Neil Scarisbrick. The Vancouver Police Department said the 36-year-old victim was sucker-punched during an altercation near Columbia and East Hastings streets in the early hours of Sept. 7, 2020 and died from his injuries.
Payne pleaded guilty May 10 but the sentencing has been adjourned due to the report situation.
“I don’t know why it took so long,” Laker said of the report.
“Quite a bit of dismay has been expressed,” she said in explaining the adjournment to Scarisbrick’s family.
Defence lawyer Kevin Westell said he hasn’t seen the report yet; he described the delay as part of the general inaccessibility of such reports provincewide.
“Which is ludicrous,” St. Pierre said, adding he would be talking to the regional administrative judge about the issue.
