Man who pulled 'improvised knife' on worker, escaped Whitehorse youth offender facility sentenced to 10 months

A man from the N.W.T. who pulled a shiv on a guard at the Whitehorse youth offender facility last year before starting a riot and escaping with another inmate was sentenced to 10 months' custody.

While the man was 19 at the time and charged as an adult, he was also facing a murder charge in the N.W.T. that was laid against him when he was a youth. CBC News is not naming him as a result.

He pleaded guilty to one count of forcibly breaking out of a cell with intent to escape and assault with a weapon in Yukon territorial court on April 17.

The man was among the inmates brought to Whitehorse during Yellowknife's wildfire-related evacuation last summer. An agreed statement of facts filed to the court after his guilty pleas states that a youth service worker working at the facility told police that staff were required to move the man into a different room on Aug. 22, 2023.

The service worker went into the man's room, at which point the man "presented a sharp object in his hand and then walked towards" him.

The worker and other staff "retreated to the facility's control room," the agreed statement of facts continues, and the man left his cell, "to destroy furniture in the common area and [activate] the fire alarm."

The fire alarm unlocked the doors of the facility. The man and another person then fled the building, triggering a manhunt focused on the forest behind Yukon University that included the Yukon RCMP'spolice dog servicesand emergency response team.

Officers were able to locate and arrest the two without incident. Police later found "a piece of a toothbrush taped with gauze and a metal sharp pin" in the forest that the youth service worker said was the same "improvised knife" the man had pulled on him.

The man was sentenced to 10 months for forcibly breaking out of his cell and six months for the assault with a weapon, to be served concurrently. However, with credit for time spent in pre-trial custody, his sentence was automatically considered served.

The Crown stayed three other charges against the man, including being unlawfully at large, carrying a weapon and mischief over $5,000.

Separately, the man is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to second-degree murder in relation to the shooting death of Jordan Tourangeau in Fort Smith, N.W.T. in 2022.