Sam and Brigette Graham are calling on prosecutors to appeal the manslaughter conviction handed down to Montana Lewis, who was originally charged with first-degree murder for the stabbing death of Sam Graham Jr. <\/p>\n
Every July, the parents of Sam Graham Jr. gather around his headstone on his birthday to share his favourite ice cream cake \u2014 the same one his mom always made.<\/p>\n
The annual ritual reveals just how deeply Sam and Brigette Graham are still grieving the death of their son, more than five years after the 19-year-old was fatally stabbed by the twin brother of his then-girlfriend outside a Muriel Drive home.<\/p>\n
But last week, their endless grief turned to disbelief and outrage: their son\u2019s killer, 23-year-old Montana Lewis, was found guilty of manslaughter by Ontario Superior Court Justice Alexander Kurke after he was tried for first-degree murder late last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the judge sits there and tells you that your son died because of vengeance, and then you say manslaughter, there’s no justice for my son \u2014 he died for nothing,\u201d Brigette told SooToday, during a recent interview at the Graham family home.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou’re telling me he died for nothing, and it doesn’t mean anything to anybody except for us, right? It doesn’t mean anything to anyone. That’s not fair.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lewis pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the Nov. 12, 2020 stabbing death of Graham, who died from a penetrating stab wound to his abdomen that injured the largest artery in his body, resulting in fatal blood loss.<\/p>\n
During a 10-day trial held in October, court heard from Semiah Lewis, who witnessed the fight involving Graham and her twin brother.<\/p>\n
Montana also took the witness stand and testified in his own defence about what happened at the Muriel Drive home.<\/p>\n
Family and friends of Sam Jr. who were in court for the decision were shocked and angered by Kurke convicting Montana on the lesser charge of manslaughter \u2014 with much of that anger boiling over in the courtroom.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’re the ones that are most damaged out of all this, and they’re talking about Indigenous rights and stuff like that,\u201d Sam told SooToday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy would you let that happen to other people then \u2014 other races?\u201d<\/p>\n
Sam and Brigette are now calling on the Crown to appeal the manslaughter conviction, in hopes of getting Kurke\u2019s Jan. 30 decision overturned.<\/p>\n
The parents claim there were \u201csignificant errors\u201d in Kurke’s assessment of the evidence during the trial, resulting in his finding that there was no specific intent to kill \u2014 despite Montana sending a text to a young woman shortly before Sam Jr.\u2019s death explicitly stating he was going to kill him.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re also upset with Kurke accepting what they claim to be uncorroborated portions of Montana\u2019s testimony while rejecting the majority of it.<\/p>\n
Montana testified that he had been drinking wine, smoking weed and doing cocaine on the morning of Sam Jr.\u2019s death, and that he had intentionally dropped the knife as both young men fell to the ground.<\/p>\n
Both Brigette and Sam say there was absolutely no evidence to support either of those claims.<\/p>\n
They contend their son\u2019s death was caused by a premeditated, vengeful attack in which Montana showed no remorse for Sam Jr. after stabbing him twice forcefully \u2014 once in the abdomen, piercing his spine, and another in his left tricep, hitting bone and severing muscle.<\/p>\n
Sam also alleges that Montana had asked Sam Jr. to look up the definition of manslaughter on the night before his son\u2019s death, but the Crown chose to ignore it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe judge took the words from the defence, trying to paint this picture when the picture is not there,\u201d Sam said. \u201cIt’s all lies wrapped together, trying to paint that Montana was sincere and stuff.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it\u2019s not true \u2014 none of it is true.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sam has also sent an email to the Canadian Judicial Council, which is responsible for federally appointed judges, to lodge a complaint against Kurke.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s requested an investigation into his decision in the case, alleging that \u201cinconsistencies and selective evidence handling raise questions about the judge’s objectivity and motives.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re hurt, we\u2019re devastated. We’ve been devastated from day one,\u201d said Sam. \u201cThat has not gone away, none of the grief has gone away.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd we’re here today to try to get the truth out.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s anticipated that a date for Lewis\u2019 sentencing will be set when the matter returns to court on Feb. 25.<\/p>\n
Sam and Brigette are both deeply concerned about how the sentencing hearing will play out.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur statements are provided to defence counsel and the defendant to see before we speak these words. So there’s no actual impact because they all read it before,\u201d said Brigette. \u201cWhere’s the impact if you know what I’m going to say? How unfair is that?\u201d<\/p>\n
At one point, Sam showed SooToday Sam Jr.\u2019s bedroom, which remains untouched to this day.<\/p>\n
The room is adorned with pieces of Green Bay Packers memorabilia \u2014 a nod not only to his favourite team, but a love for the game he played ever since he was eight years old.<\/p>\n
He also taught several children how to throw a football while completing his co-op placement over two years at Pinewood Public School, the same elementary school he once attended.<\/p>\n
Brigette said her son \u201cgrew up just to be an amazing kid.\u201d<\/p>\n
The parents of Sam Jr. are currently in discussions with End Violence Everywhere, an advocacy group for survivors of violence, in order to bring more attention to what they believe was a gross miscarriage of justice.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got to get our grief out. We got to get it out, and we’re going to try to do really positive things for our community and for victim services,\u201d Sam said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’re going to really get involved with that and advocate for other people, so maybe something will change so they don’t go through this again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sam and Brigette feel the loss of their son each and every day \u2014 with his bedroom, his phone and his gravesite being the only ways in which they’re able to connect with Sam Jr. today.<\/p>\n
He\u2019ll get his favourite ice cream cake again when his family acknowledges his birthday at his grave on July 26.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe always gets the first piece,\u201d his mother said. \u201cI always leave him the first piece.\u201d<\/p>\n
– with files from Linda Richardson<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sam and Brigette Graham are calling on prosecutors to appeal the manslaughter conviction handed down to Montana Lewis,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":459919,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,44,188102],"class_list":{"0":"post-459918","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-parentstrialmanslaughterstabbing-deathjudgeconvictionmontana-lewissam-graham-jr"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459918\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/459919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}