Man gets seven-year sentence for role in violent robbery

Another person is off to prison for participating in an assault and robbery that started with a meeting outside a Regina nightclub and ended with the victim losing a finger.

According to court documents, 25-year-old Austin Severight was found guilty on charges including kidnapping and robbery in Regina Provincial Court and was sentenced to seven years behind bars. A charge of attempted murder previously had been dismissed.

With credit for time served, Severight is to spend 1,988 days in prison.

Two other people already have been sentenced in connection with the case. Jenna Hoffman was given a five-year sentence and Sheridan Squirrel was sentenced to six years in prison.

The RCMP’s investigation into the incident began on Oct. 4, 2020, when Mounties from the Fort Qu’Appelle detachment and paramedics got a call about an injured person who had been found in a field north of Fort Qu’Appelle.

The man was taken to hospital with serious injuries. Court documents issued after Hoffman’s sentencing said the victim had suffered injuries including a severed pinky finger, 19 lacerations to the back of his head that needed 107 staples to close and eight broken or missing teeth.

Police subsequently determined the man had met three people outside a Regina nightclub and left with them in a vehicle.

“The victim was beaten, tortured and robbed,” the police said in a release at the time. “The suspects attempted to access the victim’s bank account. The victim was then taken to a field outside of Fort Qu’Appelle, further beaten and left unconscious. Hours later a passerby saw the victim and called 911.”

On Nov. 5, 2020, police arrested Hoffman and Squirrel in Wadena. Severight was arrested on May 25, 2021, in Tisdale.