‘Career criminal’ attacked former friend with axe, skipped trial: Sentenced to time served

Martin Larose was angry. His friend was sleeping with his former long-term girlfriend.

So he crashed his car into his buddy’s yard, trying to hit his dog.

He missed, but got out and started yelling before he got punched in the face, knocked to the ground.

Larose, 59, was even angrier, so he got an axe from his truck.

The friend stumbled backward, tripped and fell before Larose hit him several times, though not causing serious damage. The victim managed to find a metal bar, warded him off and threatened to “stick it through his guts.”

Larose finally relented, got in his vehicle and drove off. Somehow, neither was seriously injured.

It was a dramatic day but on Jan. 16, almost four years since the attack, Larose was sentenced at the Penticton courthouse to time served, an anticlimactic end to a burdensome court process.

Larose hasn’t fared much better since that day.

The court heard about a “great deal of animosity” after Larose’s friend of seven years began dating his long-time but former partner.

Larose was charged with assault with a weapon and assault causing bodily harm months after the attack, but in November 2023 failed to turn up to his trial. He was found guilty in absentia of assault with a weapon and appears to have spent the next 18 months out in the community.

He was due to be sentenced in March 2024, but again failed to show up.

Defence lawyer Andrew McKay said Larose was out of the province and didn’t have any ID to get to a place and come back to BC.

He did, however, finally turn himself in to the Kelowna RCMP and has been behind bars since last summer.

Born and bred in Quebec, an interpreter translated the court hearing for Larose.

He initially applied for a mistrial, alleging his language rights were violated, but abandoned it.

Instead, he and the Crown agreed five-and-a-half months in jail was long enough, and he was sentenced to time served.

Little was heard about Larose’s life, only that he turns 60 next month and had moved to BC in the early 1990s. 

He was described as a “petty criminal” with a criminal record that started in Quebec in 1987 and which only had one significant gap in it.

Court records show he has been convicted in BC for domestic assault, theft, causing a disturbance and numerous driving offences. 

His lawyer said Larose had been homeless for the last two years and survived by collecting cans.

Larose remains on probation for 12 months. He’s also been banned from owning firearms for five years and has to give a DNA sample.