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A Calgary man who got into a drunken fight with his friend and stabbed him 12 times with a pair of scissors is at risk of deportation, court heard at his sentencing hearing on Friday.<\/p>\n
Hans Jimenez Varela, 30, has admitted to killing 28-year-old Jose Miguel Gutierrez Polanco on Jan. 28, 2024.<\/p>\n
Jimenez Varela was initially charged with second-degree murder. But when his jury trial was just about to begin in April, he instead pleaded guilty to manslaughter.<\/p>\n
On Friday, Crown prosecutor Terrence Mazerolle proposed an eight-year prison sentence. <\/p>\n
Defence lawyer Jason Wuttunee asked the judge to consider a conditional sentence order, or in the worst-case scenario, a time-served sentence that would allow him to appeal deportation and fight to stay in Canada with his family.<\/p>\n
Jimenez Varela has been in custody since his March 2024 arrest. He did not apply for bail.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn’t one shove; it wasn’t one blow; it wasn\u2019t one careless movement. It was repeated 12 times,\u201d said Mazerolle in his arguments for an eight-year prison sentence.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are obvious public policy reasons for why it would be important and useful for his rehabilitation that he remain in Canada,\u201d said Wuttunee, who argued his client was provoked and acting out of self-defence.<\/p>\n
Court of King\u2019s Bench Justice Christopher Simard is expected to deliver his decision on Jimenez Varela\u2019s fate on Sept. 10.<\/p>\n
Victim invited killer over for drinks<\/p>\n
According to an agreed statement of facts read aloud in court, the two men met through work at a local construction company, roughly a year before Gutierrez Polanco was killed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
They didn\u2019t hang out alone often. But on the evening of Jan. 27, Gutierrez Polanco invited Jimenez Varela to his apartment for drinks. They became \u201cseverely intoxicated\u201d as the night went on.<\/p>\n
According to the agreed statement of facts, the offender said Gutierrez Polanco started a fight, demanding respect regarding his age and background. The verbal confrontation turned physical.<\/p>\n
Gutierrez Polanco shoved Jimenez Varela, who hit his head on the wall. Jimenez Varela tried to stop him and at one point tried to leave, but Gutierrez Polanco punched him in the head, said the agreed statement of facts.<\/p>\n
Jimenez Varela grabbed a nearby pair of scissors and stabbed Gutierrez Polanco 12 times: five times in the neck, six times in the torso and once in the arm. Three of those wounds could have been fatal, said the agreed statement of facts.<\/p>\n
Around 5:30 a.m. on Jan. 28, CCTV captured Jimenez Varela leaving the apartment. He resumed life as normal, said the agreed statement of facts.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Gutierrez Polanco\u2019s body was found 17 days later in \u201ca state of advanced decomposition\u201d by his property manager.<\/p>\n
‘He was a good friend’<\/p>\n
Simard heard Jimenez Varela\u2019s family immigrated to Canada as refugees due to threats they were receiving in Colombia. His parents moved first, and he was raised by extended family for six years before he joined them. Court heard he struggled in that time.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s the only person in his family who does not have Canadian citizenship. He has permanent residence status. He’s now at risk of being deported to Colombia.<\/p>\n
Through an interpreter, Jimenez Varela apologized for the damage he caused to the victim\u2019s family, as well as his own.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was a good friend of mine, and I also feel his loss,\u201d said Jimenez Varela.<\/p>\n
Sister brought ashes to Mexico<\/p>\n
Gutierrez Polanco\u2019s younger sister submitted a victim impact statement read aloud at the hearing. The two are less than a year apart in age.<\/p>\n
She wrote that bringing her brother\u2019s ashes back to Mexico was the most difficult thing she\u2019s done.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always think it\u2019s just a dream and maybe he will call me, text me, but it does not happen,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing I\u2019ve been doing will bring my brother back to me. He is always on my mind and will be forever.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 4 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":680504,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194293],"tags":[49,2798,48],"class_list":["post-839457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-calgary","tag-ca","tag-calgary","tag-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839457","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=839457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839457\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/680504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=839457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=839457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=839457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}