A 52-year-old man was sentenced to nearly two years in prison during Moose Jaw Provincial Court on Thursday. 

Chris Musqua was facing charges including common assault, assault by choking, assault with a weapon (knife), uttering death threats and unlawful confinement. 

The charges stem from an incident that took place on Sept. 12, when the Moose Jaw Police Service was called to an assault against a man and a woman at a residence near downtown. 

Judge David Chow ruled that Musqua would spend 18 months in prison for unlawful confinement of the female victim, which was agreed upon by both defence lawyer Suzanne Lalonde and Crown prosecutor Monique Paquin. At issue was whether the other charges would be served concurrent to the unlawful confinement charge or consecutively. 

The Crown had been asking for three and a half years in jail with charges being served consecutively, while Lalonde was asking for a lesser jail sentence with time being served concurrently. 

Chow ruled that the unlawful confinement took place over a time span of about 30 minutes and the assaults against the female victim were linked or were a single “transaction.” Because of that, Chow sentenced Musqua to one year each for common assault, assault by choking, assault with a weapon and uttering death threats that would run concurrent to the unlawful confinement. 

For the charges of common assault against the male victim, Chow said Musqua punched the victim six to 10 times and that set the unlawful confinement events into motion. Chow said the male victim has a right to feel that justice would be served for him. 

Chow also looked at Musqua’s preview criminal record which included 60 days in 2012 for common assault and 40 days in 2020 for common assault, which Chow assumed was less serious. 

Taking those into consideration, Chow sentenced Musqua to 120 days or four months in jail to be served consecutively for a total of one year and 10 months. 

Musqua had spent 139 days in custody pre-sentencing and was given credit for 207 days, meaning he has 453 days left to serve. 

Musqua had also asked Chow not to impose a weapons prohibition because of his Indigenous background and it would impose on hunting.  

Chow said it was discretionary and he took into consideration the Indigenous background, the uttering of death threats, the fact one of the assaults involved a knife and the fact his prior record does not involve any offences involving weapons. Chow imposed a five-year weapons ban following his release for unlawful confinement.