(ADAM PROSKIW / iNFOnews.ca)

A night of drinking and using drugs at a friend's West Kelowna home suddenly went sideways when Danny Blanchard took a filleting knife to his friend in the kitchen.

She handed him the knife while he was struggling to cut a frozen fish. Why he suddenly turned the knife on her isn't known, but the attack that extended as he chased her to the street has landed him in prison more than three years later.

Blanchard, born in 1997, and his brother were visiting a West Kelowna couple on the afternoon of Dec. 2, 2021, when he assaulted her. The mid-afternoon four-person party included alcohol and cocaine, coming to an end when Blanchard and his longtime friend were making food in the kitchen.

After she handed him the knife, she said "a switch went off," a Kelowna courtroom heard.

"His demeanour changed and he suddenly began attacking her with the knife," Judge Lisa Wyatt said on March 20.

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Blanchard stabbed her twice before she fled the house, screaming down Main Street. Blanchard caught her when she tripped onto the sidewalk, stabbing her once to the chest and slicing her arm as she tried to get up. Kicking to fend him off, Blanchard dragged her by her feet and her hair when she tried to flee.

A passing truck driver threatened to fight Blanchard off with a pipe. Blanchard let up and fled back to the house as the trucker and another man yelled at him to stop, driving off in his brother's truck shortly after.

Police responded to the assault just after 3 p.m. and paramedics took the victim to the hospital after she identified her attacker. Blanchard returned to the house that same afternoon, catching him as he tried to flee through the backyard.

It's not clear where Blanchard's brother or the victim's boyfriend were during the attack.

The victim was released from the hospital the same day and recovered, but she couldn't work for months after the attack and continues to deal with "significant trauma," according to Wyatt.

"When corrections called her in April 2024, ... she began crying and asked when this case would be over. She was still in counselling two-and-a-half years post assault," Wyatt said.

Why the case continued for so long wasn't explained during Blanchard's March 20 sentencing hearing despite being criminally charged on the day of the stabbing. He also pleaded guilty 11 months later. 

He was scheduled to be sentenced in Kelowna at least seven times since his plea, including four court dates in the past four months.

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Wyatt noted the attack was "unprovoked" and her injuries were life-threatening, but it's not clear what happened before the stabbing.

Since he was 12 years old, Blanchard had been using drugs, but there's no evidence any other mental health condition led to the attack, according to a court-appointed psychologist who assessed him.

"(The psychologist) opines that Mr. Blanchard's actions at the time of the offence were significantly influenced by the amount of substances he was using, rather than being explained by an underlying mental health disorder," Wyatt said.

Now living in Saanich, Blanchard's lawyer sought a two-year conditional sentence, allowing him to stay out of custody. The Crown sought a jail sentence of between 18 to 24 months.

Wyatt ultimately landed on a 20-month jail sentence.

"It must not be lost on anyone that Mr. Blanchard stabbed his friend with a knife in the kitchen, chased her out of the house while still carrying the knife, stabbed her again after she fell, and then a Good Samaritan intervened, perhaps saving the victim's life," she said. The court finds incarceration in a correctional facility is necessary to demonstrate to the victim and community Mr. Blanchard is being held accountable."

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