Man sentenced for role in Saskatoon bar brawl

A Saskatoon man has been sentenced to nearly three and a half years in prison for his role in a gang fight at a Broadway Avenue bar.

Bobby Darren Leibel, 26, admitted spraying bear mace inside Rock Bottom during a hip-hop show on Dec. 14, 2013. He also held back a group of people while a 33-year-old man was stabbed outside.

Court heard the brawl broke out during a planned attack by a group of Terror Squad members. The rappers on stage were part of the Stressed Street Gang. According to the Crown, members of that gang had beat up Terror Squad members at the Saskatchewan Penitentiary and the attack was retaliation.

Video surveillance shows Leibel spraying bear mace after another gang member, 20-year-old Timothy Muldoon, pulled a sawed-off rifle from his pants and pointed it at the rapper on stage. People at the bar were able to stop Muldoon and hold him down while the basement building emptied.

Once outside, a 15-year-old boy, who was part of the Terror Squad, stabbed a 33-year-old man 10 times. The victim was not one of the rappers but had been trying to stop the violence inside the bar, the Crown said.

Although court heard Leibel was not directly involved with the stabbing, the Crown argued he was a party to the offence because he held people back while it was taking place.

Leibel pleaded guilty to two counts of assault with a weapon in Saskatoon Provincial Court on July 13. On Tuesday, his lawyer argued for a maximum two-year sentence, saying his client is a father of six with a job waiting for him when he gets out of jail. He said Leibel had been drinking the night of the brawl and is open to councelling for his addiction issues.

Speaking to the judge, Leibel said he wants to reconnect with his kids and leave the gang life behind.

The Crown argued for a sentence of four years and four months followed by two years of probation. The judge sentenced Leibel to three years and four months, which means he has a year left to serve after getting a remand credit of 28 months.

-with files from News Talk Radio’s Bre McAdam and Kelly Malone

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