Man sentenced to 3 years for fatal assault

Retired CBC producer died after falling into a wooden planter in 2023 attack on Danforth

- JACQUES GALLANT

Lesley Murray believes that her late cousin Michael Finlay would have agreed with the three-year jail sentence handed down Tuesday to the man who shoved and killed him in a random incident on an east-end Toronto sidewalk.

With credit for time served in custody since his arrest last year, 45-year-old Robert Cropearedwolf still has about 20 months left on his sentence for manslaughter, to be followed by three years of probation. "He always wanted the best for people, and I think that he would want the best for Mr. Cropearedwolf," Murray told reporters outside court after the sentencing.

"I do hope that rehabilitation helps (Cropearedwolf) in the long run, so that he has a better life for himself. Clearly, he's not happy, and I just hope that things work out for him."

Cropearedwolf pleaded guilty to manslaughter in May for knocking the 73-year-old retired CBC producer to the ground in a random incident on a Danforth Avenue sidewalk, near Jones Avenue, in January 2023. It was one in a string of random fatal attacks in Toronto at the time.

Holding a red-flame mask to his face, Cropearedwolf had walked through a group of people on the sidewalk, pushed Finlay, and fled. Finlay fell into a large wooden planter, and died of his injuries several days later.