PICTOU, N.S. - A Halifax man was sentenced Friday to 14 and a half years in prison for fatally stabbing another man during a New Year's Eve party more than two years ago.
Earlier this week, Robert Harris Lamb changed his plea from not guilty of second-degree murder to guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter.
Lamb told the Nova Scotia Supreme Court that he stabbed 25-year-old Jonathan Beaton at a house on College Street in Antigonish on Jan. 1, 2010.
During Lamb's trial in Pictou, court heard Beaton died at hospital about four hours after police found him collapsed outside the house.
Lamb, 22, was arrested eight months later.
With credit for time served, Lamb's sentence amounts to 12 years.
During the trial, a forensic expert said he couldn't tell whose fingerprints were on a knife that police believe was used to kill Beaton.
A witness also testified he wasn't sure who wielded the knife that killed Beaton.
Witness Jonathan Borden said he was at the party but couldn't recall if Lamb stabbed Beaton during a kitchen brawl at the house party. He could only recall seeing one man lunging at another man but he saw no weapon.
However, Chris Rogers identified Lamb as the man who stabbed Beaton twice in the abdomen.
Asked about the force that was used, Rogers replied: "It looked like he was putting everything he had into it."
The officer who first arrived at the scene testified that he could do little to help Beaton as the young man's life ebbed away, saying the victim had a "faraway look in his eyes."
A doctor who treated Beaton testified he had no pulse or blood pressure when he arrived at the hospital. Dr. George Sutherland said Beaton's body was shutting down from internal bleeding.
Sutherland said once Beaton was somewhat stabilized he was sent for surgery, where he would die as a surgeon attempted to repair the damage.
