Trio sentenced for roles in near-fatal attack of man walking home from Sarnia bar

All three accused have now been sentenced for the stabbing and pellet-gun shooting of a Sarnia man walking home from a bar after a youth was recently handed six months in custody for aggravated assault.

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Christopher Baker, 38, was injured in an early morning fight on Shepherd Street on June 20, 2023. He had broken ribs, a broken finger, a sprained wrist, severed back muscles, and a punctured lung that could’ve been fatal.

“If paramedics showed up a minute later I would have drowned in my own blood,” Baker wrote in a statement read in court. “When the knife entered my back it punctured my lung. I remember hearing the air going in and out of my back where I was stabbed.”

Three people fled after the attack but were arrested nearby at gunpoint. Sarnia residents Desiree Lasenby, 20, Denver McDonald, 23 — the couple lived together on Devine Street at the time — and a youth, who cannot be identified, were charged with more than a dozen offenses including aggravated assault, assault with a weapon and disguise with intent.

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Lasenby pleaded guilty in September to assault with a weapon and breaching a release order and was sentenced in December to nine months in jail. McDonald pleaded guilty in November to carrying a weapon for the purpose of committing an offense. His punishment included a suspended sentence and probation.

The youth’s case was recently resolved with a six-month youth custody sentence for aggravated assault.

It was the youth’s first criminal conviction.

“(My client) kind of went from zero to 60 here, your honor, having no prior criminal record, no prior police involvement,” defense lawyer Nick Cake said to the judge.

Cake said his client acted quickly without thinking that night and was trying to defend McDonald, but admitted there was no legal argument for that.

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“Clearly this is a significant and serious offense that caused a very serious injury to another person – to an innocent victim,” Justice Deborah Austin said.

The youth and the couple were near downtown Sarnia late on June 19, 2023. They were wearing dark clothes and masks and accused of causing property damage, prompting a warning from Sarnia police around 2 am on June 20.

About 90 minutes later they came across Baker as he was leaving the former Dempsey’s bar and grill. Baker, who had been drinking, was locking up his truck and planned on walking home from the Ontario Street pub when he saw the trio and asked if they’d drive him home in his truck as he lived just a couple of blocks away.

The group refused. Baker asked a couple more times before giving up and saying he’d just walk home instead.

The group became annoyed by him walking in the same direction as them and Baker and McDonald fought on Shepherd Street. Baker was on top of McDonald when the youth stabbed him in the lower abdomen and upper-back area with a switchblade.

Lasenby shot Baker with a BB-gun from close range in the lower back. One pellet later discovered in his head had to be removed.

Baker’s wife and neighbor ran to help and called 911 as the trio fled. His family found him covered in blood.

“And fighting for my life, wasting for air,” Baker wrote in his statement.

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