November 5, 2015 Dear Mr. Justice Robert Hall My wife and | are writing this letter to you with the intention of helping you know a bit about our son and how the past 2 % years have affected his life. Nicholas grew up in Canmore with 3 other siblings. Nicholas had a fairly normal childhood. There was nothing overly remarkable in his behaviour until grade 9, about the time he started to become a young man. He began excelling at school, writing honours in all subjects, earning him the Rutherford Scholarship. Nicholas was very social, well liked, with a large group of friends. Nicholas chose the field of Mechanical Engineering and enrolled at the U of C. He moved to Calgary with his best friend to attend classes with the plan to live partially off his savings, scholarship funds and support from us. In late fall of his first semester we experienced a financial crisis and as a result were not able to provide any financial support to Nick. For the remainder of that school year Nicholas worked fulltime and attended and passed a full class load, a remarkable undertaking for a 19 year old. Nicholas completed 5 years of University then interned for a year at an oil and gas company, Enersul He returned to complete his final year and worked part time for Enersul. After graduating Nick began fulltime employment with the company. During the trial you corrected Mr. Walsh when he claimed Nicholas was a “successful engineer’, that you had no evidence stating this. From the time Nicholas was in his Sth year of university until this distressing occurrence he worked for the same company, initially in operations and later promoted to sales. While employed for Enersul, Nicholas travelled the world, meeting with major companies from China to Russia to the Middle East. He spoke at numerous conferences and was exceptionally successful professionally and financially. In 2012 the company offered him a directorship position but Nicholas turned it down because he felt because of his age and the number of older, more experienced people in the company, it would bedetrimental to the moral in the company and his ability to lead and direct. He felt it better to wait a year before accepting in 2013. Nicholas met Kelsey in his last year of university. After graduating, Nicholas and Kelsey became engaged and married. Kelsey and Nicholas bought a house in Evergreen, in Calgary's SW. After working and saving for a couple of years they felt that they were ready to buy a lot and build their “dream home” in Auburn Bay. They had delayed starting a family because Kelsey was 4 years younger than Nicholas and they both wanted to reach a certain age before starting a family. They had planned to finish building their house and start a family for the summer of 2013. After this distressing event, Nicholas spent 13 months in the Calgary Remand Centre. Kelsey stayed with Us on and off for the first couple of months but as time wore on; Kelsey became more and more discouraged, anticipating the worst possible outcome for Nicholas. Their relationship continued to deteriorate to the point that when he was released from Remand they separated and have since /orced. They still interact and Kelsey says she still loves Nick but couldn't deal with the public perception of what has occurred and if Nicholas was sentenced for an extended incarceration she felt she could not cope with that. My son loves his wife desperately and is hoping and praying to reconcile, Nicholas is a proud man, not wishing to financially burden anyone. Since being release from Remand he decided to sell their home and liquidate most of his assets to pay for his legal defence. He is working fulltime and contributing 100% of what he makes to his defence. He has solely paid for his entire defence. Asa result of this distressing occurrence he has lost his position at Enersul and anticipates because of the conviction of manslaughter his ability to work as an engineer in the public forum is extremely limited and perhaps impossible. He has a good job at present, employed by my brother as a manager at his restaurant and entertainment venue but if incarcerated for any lengthy period of time will result in someone replacing him. Nicholas has been emotionally devastated by this tragic circumstance but he has a huge network of friends and family who support him. As you saw by the turnout to his trial, all these friends showed up on their own to demonstrate support for our son. In summary my Lordship, you have rendered your verdict. Upon review of this verdict with Nicholas he has stated that “the Judge may very well be right, that at some point | had inflicted enough injury to the deceased to make him no longer a threat” but Nick says “at the time I didn’t know it, he kept coming at me”. My son was terrified, he had been attacked and he and his wife were threatened and in extreme danger. He reacted to defend them,We firmly believe there were 2 victims that night and we beg of you to be merciful to our son in sentencing. He has never been in any trouble with the law and has been a solid citizen, loving brother, husband and son all his life. He poses no danger to the public; he had never pre\ reoffend usly been in a fight and certainly is not a risk to He has lost so much already, please give him an opportunity to rebuild his life. We have always been so proud of him and will continue to do so. Sincerely Steve & Debra Rasberry