SASKATOON — Riley Collin Gullickson has been sentenced to 13 years in prison for a near-fatal, unprovoked attack of James Graham, a vulnerable man napping on a downtown sidewalk outside the Salvation Army building.
In Saskatoon Provincial Court, Gullickson pleaded guilty to attempted murder. Saskatoon police initially charged Gullickson with aggravated assault and later upgraded the charge to attempted murder.
“Mr. Gullickson attacked a random person without reason or provocation, inflicted horrific violence on that person intending to kill him, and caused massive, and massively life-changing, injuries to that person,” said Judge Quinton D. Agnew in his August written decision.
Judge Agnew pointed out that Gullickson, now 26, has a lengthy criminal record dating back to 2014. Gullickson’s 40-plus convictions include robbery, threats, assault causing bodily harm, assault with a weapon, assault, possession of a firearm or ammunition while prohibited, and carrying a concealed knife.
Gullickson “had been in the community a total of four days before he attempted to murder Mr. Graham,” said Judge Agnew.
Video evidence showed that on Aug. 20, 2023, Gullickson, who had been banned from a shelter the previous night, emerged from the Salvation Army and wandered aimlessly outside before his attention became fixed on James Graham.
After trying to entangle himself from a blanket, Graham tried to flee from Gullickson, without success.
Warning: Details may be disturbing to some
Vicious attack
The video showed Gullickson launching a full-force kick to Graham’s side and then chasing him down the street. He knocked him to the ground, and then stomped on his head three times with his full body weight.
After Graham became unconscious, Gullickson kicked him in the face and resumed stomping on him. He then used a knife to cut Graham’s exposed neck multiple times, kicking the back of his head between cuts, before casually walking away.
The day after the attack, in a warned statement to police, Gullickson said he didn’t know the victim, had intended to kill him, and believed he had killed him.
Court documents reveal that at the time of the attack, Graham was suffering from the effects of a previous traumatic brain injury but he was fully mobile and fully functioning. After the attack, Graham was hospitalized for more than 400 days, although much of that time was spent waiting for a bed in a long-term care facility.
In hospital, he was unresponsive for approximately one month. His speech was very limited and he presented with the capacity of an eight-year-old. He was unable to eat on his own for about four months. His intellectual function has slowly improved, but court heard there is limited rehabilitation potential.
Graham remains in a facility where he receives 24-hour care and is confined to a wheelchair.
A Victim Impact Statement was filed on behalf of Graham, which was completed by someone at his care home because he was incapable of doing so himself. It detailed Graham’s profound loneliness. He would like to move to Swift Current to be close to his family, but can’t because there is no facility there that could care for him.
He said that he is lonely, stuck in the care facility, unable to chat with others, and finds it difficult to speak even with his own father by telephone since his speech is so slurred. He is unable to perform even the most basic tasks without help.
Gladue factors
A pre-sentence report revealed Gullickson has been a heavy user of methamphetamine since he was 17. He is Métis and had a traumatic upbringing. Gladue factors detailed a childhood marked by poverty, a mother who was a residential school survivor struggling with addiction, abandonment by his father, and diagnoses of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, autism, and schizophrenia.
According to the Crown, and admitted by the defence, Gullickson was on methamphetamine at the time of the attack on Graham.
With 1.5 credit for time served in remand, Gullickson has 3,659 days, or just over 10 years left to serve.
He was also ordered to provide a DNA sample and was given a lifetime weapons prohibition.
