A judge tasked with deciding whether or not to declare Leslie Black a dangerous offender has reserved his decision until August.
Closing arguments in the dangerous offender hearing wrapped up Friday in a Prince Albert courtroom, with the judge stating he expects to issue his decision Aug. 30.
Dangerous offender status could land Black, the Prince Albert man guilty in the attempted murder of Marlene Bird, behind bars indefinitely.
Bird was found in a downtown Prince Albert parking lot on June 1, 2014. She had been viciously beaten and set on fire, and was barely conscious when she was found.
She suffered third-degree burns and was so badly wounded that both her legs required amputation. Half of her forehead down to her chin was lacerated and she was left with permanent damage to her eyesight.
She wrote, in two hand-written pages made available in April, she now can’t do anything on her own, including simple things like picking a blueberry or going to the bathroom. She wears adult diapers and can’t control her bowels, and she feels disgusted with herself when she can’t make it to the bathroom in time, the letters read.
She still fears entering the city because of the attack, she wrote.
Black pleaded guilty in 2015 to attempted murder. He later asked for the plea to be reversed, but a judge eventually denied the request.
He read a statement in court last March, apologizing for the attack. He said if he could go back to the night he attacked Bird, he would have taken his father's advice and stayed home.
His defence lawyer called Black’s actions brutal Friday but argued the one-time offence does not mean his client will violently offend again.
--- with files from The Canadian Press
