Edgar Kenneth Milnthorp was sentenced to three and a half years in prison, at a Nov. 6 sentencing hearing, for his role in the 2011 death of Ashmont-area man, Jesse Brendan Miller.
Milnthorp, a 32-year-old man living in the Bonnyville area, pleaded guilty to manslaughter for his role in an Oct. 26 altercation at the Glendon Hotel and Bar that resulted in Miller’s death.
The sentencing hearing featured surveillance videotape that depicted the moments just prior to Miller’s death at the bar. The video showed the 21-year-old Miller going upstairs of the building, at which point he and Milnthorp’s friend, Shannon Burshtinski, got into an altercation off-camera. Obscenities exchanged between the two men could be heard on the videotape, after which the pair came tumbling down a flight of stairs. Miller can be seen on the videotape with a bloody face resulting from the scuffle.
The videotape then shows that Milnthorp stepped in to break up the fight, telling Miller that he had brought the altercation upon himself and to leave the building. Milnthorp then escorted Miller outside of the hotel and out of sight of the surveillance camera.
According to witness testimony, while Milnthorp and Miller were outside of the hotel, Miller attempted to throw a punch at Milnthorp, to which Milnthorp retaliated by striking Miller to the ground. While Miller was on the ground, Milnthorp delivered a kick to his head and then fled in a van with Burshtinski and a third party. Emergency medical personnel were unable to resuscitate Miller at the scene, and he was pronounced dead at 1:51 a.m.
Toxicology reports confirmed that Miller’s blood alcohol content at the time of his death was 2.3 grams per litre, nearly three times the legal limit for operating a motor vehicle. Milnthorp was sober at the time of the altercation.
It was later determined by a pathologist through medical evidence, witness testimony and the timeline provided by surveillance video that the cause of death was blunt cranial trauma.
Both Milnthorp and Burshtinski turned themselves in to authorities on the night of the fight. While the pair had initially been charged with second-degree murder, Burshtinski’s charges were later dropped and Milnthorp’s charges were downgraded to manslaughter. Milnthorp pleaded guilty to manslaughter at the earliest opportunity, which Justice K.G. Nielsen said was taken into account while determining his sentence.
Seven victim impact statements were presented to Neilsen at the sentencing hearing, with Miller’s mother, Karen Miller, and the mother of Miller’s child, Jessica Sloan, reading their statements aloud.
Sloan stood up and spoke at the hearing through a face full of tears, stating how her daughter, Emma, will now grow up without a father, and that the amount of stress has been too much for her daughter to bear. Sloan said that Emma has had trouble sleeping since the loss of her father, and that neither of their lives will ever be the same as a result of his death.
Karen Miller then spoke, saying no parent should ever have to outlive his or her child, and that she will never forget receiving the phone call in the early morning hours of Oct. 26, 2011, telling her that her son had been badly injured, only to find out that he was in fact deceased.
Milnthorp declined the opportunity to speak prior to being sentenced by the judge.
Nielsen stated that three and a half years was an adequate sentence given Milnthorp’s demonstration of remorse by providing a guilty plea at the earliest opportunity, as well as the fact that Milnthorp has no history of violent crime and that the kick was only a contributing factor to Miller’s death. The judge also sentenced Milnthorp to a 10-year weapons prohibition and to submit DNA to authorities.
Miller’s family is hosting a memorial celebration of his life this Nov. 17 in Boscombe, to which people are encouraged to bring memories and pictures of Miller to put in a scrapbook for Emma.
