The Toronto man responsible for the 2023 death of longtime CBC Radio producer Michael Finlay has been sentenced to three years in prison.
Taking into account time already served, Robert Robin Cropearedwolf, 45, has about 20 months left to serve on his sentence, then three years of probation upon his release.
Justice David Porter handed down the sentence in Ontario Court of Justice in Toronto Tuesday after Cropearedwolf pleaded guilty to murder in May.
Porter outlined the tragic chain of events that led to the death, saying Cropearedwolf did not intend to kill when he pushed Finlay on the East End sidewalk on the afternoon of January 24. But the judge also noted Cropearedwolf acted deliberately and recklessly, although he did not intend to harm the 73-year-old, who had underlying health problems.
“This was not a deliberate attack on an elderly man,” Porter said.
In his ruling, Porter outlined how Finlay was walking along Danforth Avenue in the Jones Avenue area that day when Cropearedwolf approached, his view obscured by a mask. He then tried to pass Finlay, pushing the elderly man and causing him to fall into a wooden pot.
“I had no animosity towards him. I had no prior knowledge of this stranger,” Cropearedwolf said in a statement included in Porter's ruling. Seeing the elderly man stumble caused him to panic, the court heard, and Cropearedwolf ran away, while passers-by helped lift Finlay onto a bench.
Finlay initially refused medical help and drove away, Porter said, but police officers later saw him in distress a short distance away.
He was taken to hospital and diagnosed with injuries including two cracked ribs, but was discharged on January 26 and asked to return if his symptoms worsened.
Finlay, Porter said, had “serious heart and lung disease” at the time of the incident, which made matters worse. The judge said the injuries would not have been fatal for the average person, but were far more serious given Finlay’s “medically fragile heart” and chronic lung problems.
Finlay then struggled to breathe and called an ambulance, the court heard. On the way to hospital, he went into cardiac arrest and was put on life support, but was later pronounced dead.
Porter said Cropearedwolf was unaware of Finlay's age and frailty at the time of the incident, and was walking on a busy sidewalk with blurred vision. He also said the amount of force used during the attack was on the lower end of the spectrum, and that Cropearedwolf appeared to be “genuinely remorseful” for his actions.
“I have no greater regrets,” Cropearedwolf said in his statement to the court.