Pair sentenced to 6 years in fatal stabbing at Edmonton prison

Edmonton Law Courts are shown in Edmonton on Wednesday, July 8, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson

Two people charged in the death of an inmate at the Edmonton Institution have been sentenced to additional prison time.

Brandon Newman, 25, and Cody Nicholls, 26, were charged with first-degree murder in the death of 33-year-old inmate Bretton Fisher.

The pair was found guilty of manslaughter in December.

Fisher was fatally stabbed on July 27, 2022.

During their trial, Newman testified that he and Nicholls did not intend to kill Fisher but that they had acted in self defence.

He said Fisher had threatened them earlier that day.

Fisher was stabbed three times using homemade knives that Newman and Nicholls tied to their wrists.

In his written decision the judge called the men’s response to Fisher’s threat “disproportionate,” but concluded there is reasonable doubt as to whether they intended to kill Fraser.

On Monday, Newman and Nicholls were sentenced to six years in prison with Nicholls receiving pre-trial credit for 1,655 days time served.

Both men were also handed a lifetime ban on owning or possessing firearms.

A third man was also charged in Fisher’s death, but was not tried with Newman and Nicholls.

At the time of Fisher’s death, Newman was serving a life sentence with no chance of parole for 14 years after he was convicted of second-degree murder in the death of a caseworker in Calgary.

Court heard that he stabbed the woman 19 times.

Fisher had been serving a seven-year sentence since July 16, 2020, for aggravated assault, break-and-enter, possession of a weapon contrary to a prohibition order, and robbery with a firearm.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Craig Ellingson