Sarnia man pleads guilty to involuntary manslaughter in 2022

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A murder trial that was scheduled to begin in Sarnia last week was canceled after the accused pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

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Brandon Gilbert, 26, of Aamjivnang, was initially charged with aggravated assault in connection with what Sarnia police say was a fight during a gathering at Maness Court on the city’s south side First Nation on August 28, 2022. Dalton Bressett was arrested Police said he was in a London hospital in critical condition.

But Bressett, a 26-year-old father of three, died on September 4, 2022 and Gilbert was re-arrested 11 days later and charged with manslaughter. The trial was scheduled to begin last week in Sarnia Superior Court.

But on Friday, Gilbert instead pleaded guilty to the charge. Sentencing was scheduled for March 6.

Attorney Ken Marley told the judge he would ask for two years of house arrest. Assistant Crown Prosecutor Sarah Carmody did not say what sentence she would seek, but said several victim impact statements would be read during the hearing.

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Following Gilbert’s guilty plea, the court heard an agreed statement of facts surrounding the incident on Friday. Both men had been drinking and arguing overnight on August 28, 2022, around a bonfire in the backyard of a home on Maness Court.

At one point, they fought chests, cursed and spat at each other, but the quarrel subsided. Shortly before midnight, Bressett grabbed his pack and went through a hole in the fence.

Gilbert followed and soon returned with his backpack. Bressette returned and their argument escalated into a physical fight again.

Both men punched each other and Bressett fell to the ground. He lay motionless as Gilbert continued to attack him before family members in the backyard intervened.

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Gilbert tried to leave when police and paramedics arrived, but was arrested shortly after midnight for aggravated assault.

Bressett was taken to Bluewater Health where he was treated for an aneurysm. He was later flown to London, where doctors tried several operations to stop the bleeding, but they were unsuccessful, and he was pronounced dead about a week later. The cause of death was a subarachnoid hemorrhage from a ruptured artery.

Gilbert surrendered to a manslaughter charge on September 15, 2022. He had no criminal record at the time of the crime.

But he pleaded guilty to the charge in 2023. Gilbert, who was out on bail three times in autumn 2022, pleaded guilty to breaching one of his release orders.

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Judge Pavlo Kovalyshyn released him conditionally with a probationary period, but also admonished him.

“You violated literally in a few days. The ink is barely dry,” he said during the interview sentencing hearing in September 2023.

Gilbert also has a related second prominent case in Sarnia crimes related to child pornography. Sarnia police announced about a year ago that Gilbert, who was out on bail, was arrested following a sexual assault investigation by their criminal investigations unit.

New charges were filed, including sexual assault, sexual interference, solicitation of sexual contact, creation of child pornography, possession of child pornography and two counts of failure to comply with a release order, police said. The charges allege that Gilbert recorded a video of himself having sex with a girl under the age of 16 while on bail.

A preliminary hearing in the case is scheduled to begin in February. The allegations have not been tested in court.

he was denied bail in a new case last April.

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