A BC drug dealer in his 20s who assaulted a woman in Hay River and took a hatchet to her finger has been sentenced to eight years in prison.
Hindowa Sama had pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated assault and one of possessing cocaine for the purpose of trafficking.
Sama, then 21, and then-19-year-old Evann Rochon were arrested in 2024 after what RCMP characterized as a hostage rescue inside a home on Riverview Drive.
In a written decision on Friday, Territorial Court Judge Stephanie Whitecloud-Brass said Sama should serve the full eight-year sentence requested by the Crown, minus about a year for time already served in custody.
“Mr Sama made the choice to come up to the Northwest Territories to sell drugs as a way to make money for his family. When dealing with the female victim, he made those choices, too. He subjected her to physical and verbal abuse and ultimately took a hatchet to her pinkie finger and severed it,” Whitecloud-Brass wrote.
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“He terrorized her and part of accepting responsibility is also accepting the consequences.”
In her decision, the judge set out the facts of the March 28, 2024 incident that led to Sama’s arrest.
Officers responding to a complaint of an assault found a woman in the Riverview Drive home’s living room, her hand wrapped in gauze and her finger “almost severed,” Whitecloud-Brass wrote. Sama and Rochon were found in the basement.
Guns, ammunition, money, cocaine, multiple cell phones and “a sweater and two towels with blood on them” were found in subsequent searches.
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The judge said Rochon filmed a series of videos that showed the woman – of Indigenous descent – being yelled at and assaulted while the men accused her of stealing $10,000. In one of the videos, Sama is seen partially severing the woman’s pinkie finger.
“While she is withering in pain, Mr Rochon can be heard swearing at her and seen kicking her,” the judge wrote.
“The videos speak for themselves in terms of what was said, what was done by whom and how she was reacting to all of it in real time.”
Sama’s lawyer had sought a total sentence of four years. The judge decided the Crown’s eight-year proposal was reasonable for Sama, who was born and raised in Canada.
“A message needs to be sent to those who choose to traffic drugs about the unacceptability of their actions and the damage that they cause,” the judge wrote.
Rochon is due to be sentenced in the coming days.
