A Regina man who admitted to fatally stabbing his sister’s common-law husband has been sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 10 years.
Melvin Joseph Severight pleaded guilty Wednesday to second-degree murder in the death of 42-year-old Gregory Earl Fox of Regina.
Court heard that Severight got into an alcohol- and drug-fuelled argument with the victim at Fox’s home on March 29.
Severight grabbed a knife from the kitchen and stabbed Fox in the neck and the top of the head while the victim was putting on his boots.
The blade severed Fox’s carotid artery and he died at the scene.
“Mr. Fox was killed in his own home – a place where he had a right to be safe,” Justice Catherine Dawson said in sentencing Severight.
“The killing can be described in no other words as senseless.”
Dawson noted that Severight accepted responsibility for his crime, and he had offered an apology to Fox’s family.
The victim’s niece, Candy Fox, was emotional when she spoke with reporters outside Court of Queen’s Bench after the sentence was read.
“It definitely feels like justice has been served, that he got a life sentence for what he did to my uncle,” she said.
“But there’s still the feelings of I wish this didn’t happen to our family and I also feel very saddened that this man committed this act of violence. He has to deal with that now, and he has to live with it for the rest of his life.”
She said her uncle was a talented artist and musician. He and his brothers played in a few bands together, including one called Brown Man’s Burden.
“He was a drummer and he could adapt to any type of music – he had that skill,” Fox said. “He could do anything.”
