A Montreal man has been sentenced to 3 and a half years in prison after he carved his initials into a 16-year-old girl’s breasts.
While summarizing the case, Quebec Court Judge Salvatore Mascia said what Justice Marshall, 20, put the girl and her family through was like a “B horror movie.”
“I’m not here to exact vengeance for the victim. However, a sentence has to reflect the values of society,” Mascia said, adding courts must denounce domestic violence.
“Sentences have to be meaningful. A sentence has to reflect what happened to the victims in this case.”
The Crown requested a four-year prison term, while Marshall’s defence lawyer argued his sentence should be the two years he’s already served behind bars.
With time served factored in, Marshall must serve a prison term of more than 16 months.
Mascia said he did not find the Crown’s suggestion to be excessive but was willing to give Marshall “a small discount” because of his young age.
During sentencing arguments, defence lawyer Stéphanie Gariépy argued Marshall had a difficult upbringing. He learned, at the age of 13 or 14, that he was adopted. He fell into a depression and his life spiralled down from there, Gariépy told the court.
“The only role models he had were men who beat on his mom,” Mascia noted. “He did not have the opportunities that other young men had.”
In 2020, Marshall and the girl were in a relationship that lasted five or six months. The relationship became toxic as he became jealous and possessive.
Marshall carved the letter J into the girl’s breasts twice. As part of his defence, he claimed the victim initially consented to what he was about to do. The judge said Marshall not only left physical scars, but also psychological ones that will remain for a long time.
Marshall threatened to kill the girl through a series of text messages they exchanged at a time when she was trying to break up with him.
“I will stomp your face into the asphalt,” he wrote in one message, adding: “I want to get arrested.”
“The minute I find there is another man with you, you will be seven feet under,” Marshall wrote in another message.
He also confronted and threatened the girl’s father at the family’s home and sent a video of him having sex with the girl to her mother.
“It’s a horror story. It’s a terrifying tale,” Mascia said. “The facts are horrifying.”
