MARIJUANA DEALER'S ATTACKERS PLEAD GUILTY TO ATTEMPTED MURDER

Two men who repeatedly stabbed their drug dealer, tried to suffocate
him, then dumped what they believed was his corpse over a secluded
embankment in Bragg Creek have pleaded guilty to attempted murder.

Toven Thobo-Carlsen and Jonathan Eric Petersen last week admitted to
the facts surrounding the early-morning June 28, 2007 incident in
which Mark Lowen nearly bled to death but miraculously survived.

Earlier, Crown prosecutor Paul Mason filed an agreed statement of
facts with provincial court Judge Sean Dunnigan that outlined what
happened after Thobo-Carlsen called Lowen about 1 a.m. to purchase
some marijuana.

When Lowen arrived, Thobo-Carlsen sat in the victim's passenger seat
and said, "Sorry, I gotta do this," then pulled out a knife and
stabbed him in the neck and torso area.

He then told Lowen, "there's no way we're leaving you alive. You're
done," just before Petersen joined in and began stabbing him as well.

Lowen, who was stabbed 10 to 12 times, began to bleed profusely from
his wounds.

The assailants then drove the victim in his own car to the Bragg Creek
area, west of Calgary, asking him several time en route, "Are you dead
yet?"

Lowen asked them at one point just to kill him and get it over
with.

When the victim's girlfriend called his cellphone, the attackers got
the impression Lowen was in jail and, according to the victim's
statement, said: "They probably won't find your body for at least five
days."

At Canyon Creek Road, Thobo-Petersen stuffed a cloth down the victim's
throat and, when he feigned death, they dumped his body over the
embankment and pushed him to the bottom of the hill.

But, somehow, Lowen was able to survive his severe injuries and loss
of blood and walked through the woods until he came to an oil and gas
plant, where workers called 911.

Dunnigan ordered pre-sentence and psychiatric reports to be used for
sentencing arguments by Mason and defence lawyers Michael Kiss, for
Thobo-Carlsen, and David Chow, for Petersen, on Dec. 12.