Killer gets five years for brutal attack

convicted killer wasted no time returning to a criminal lifestyle by attacking a young woman at a party only days after he was released from prison.
Chevy Ballentyne, 26, has been deemed a high-risk to re-offend and has shown little remorse for his actions. He is now linked to the Rock Machine biker gang, which is currently waging war in Winnipeg with the Hells Angels.
He was convicted earlier this year of hog-tying the female victim, punching her in the face and threatening to kill her during the December 2009 incident. Ballentyne had just returned to the community after serving most of a nine-and-a-half year sentence for manslaughter in a 2002 slaying.
"Mr. Ballentyne is beyond rehabilitation," Crown attorney Mike Desautels said at Ballentyne's latest sentencing hearing on Monday. He was seeking a seven-year sentence for the most recent incident, suggesting anything less would endanger the community.
But Queen's Bench Justice Rick Saull disagreed, giving Ballentyne five-and-a-half years behind bars.
The 19-year-old victim testified she was at a party when Ballentyne started assaulting several people in the home. He then grabbed her by the hair, bound her arms and legs together and threatened to "chop" her up. She was restrained for at least 10 minutes before others at the home untied her, court was told.
Following his arrest for his most recent crime, jail guards seized a letter in which Ballentyne promised to pay tuition for a female witness to the incident -- provided she came to court and lied about what happened. Ballentyne wrote he didn't want to go back to jail.
"If I was to get convicted... I'd get hit with the book," he said, according to Desautels. Ballentyne was not charged with obstructing justice for the incident.
The attack that landed him back in custody is eerily similar to the one that killed 46-year-old Guy Pouliot in 2002. The man was tied up with an electrical cord and smashed over the head with a stereo speaker, snow shovel and curtain rod by Ballentyne and a co-accused.

 

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