JAIL TIME SAVED HERE LIFE

The woman who stabbed a motel employee last April says jail has saved
her life - and she wants to stay there. A joint submission Thursday
from her lawyer and the Crown convinced Judge Edward Brecknell to
grant her wish. Brecknell sentenced Tarrah Stalker, 24, to two years
in jail for aggravated assault, meaning she can get help for her
mental health and addiction problems in a federal institution, as well
as two years probation. A tearful Stalker, appearing by video from the
Surrey pretrial centre, said she needs the services she can only find
in prison to help her beat crack and crystal meth addiction "I want to
be happy with myself, and that will take a while," said Stalker. "I do
not remember the crime, but I take full responsibility for it. I am
not a violent person, and I genuinely feel sorry for what I have
done." Stalker plunged a knife four inches into the back of Simon
Moya, an employee at the travel lodge on Abbott Street who was
escorting Stalker out of the lobby when she stabbed him.

Court was told Moya is still suffering muscle damage and that the
black-handled knife came within inches of his spine.

Defence council Wade Jenson agreed with prosecutor Paige Johnstone
that Stalker's pre-sentence report was one of the most "extraordinary"
they had ever seen. Court was told that before the stabbing, Stalker
had approached a police officer in the area, saying she needed help
getting off drugs. She then went to City Park and thought about
killing herself by cutting her throat before deciding that her fastest
way to jail and treatment was to commit a serious crime. "I stabbed
the guy because I needed help," Stalker was quoted as saying when
asked why she committed the crime.

Stalker had $300 stolen from her disability allowance before the
event. She had spent the balance on crack cocaine.

Jenson said he was prepared to ask the court for a conditional
sentence that might have seen his client returned to the community,
but Stalker told him not to.

"She misses her mother and her pets, but she has realized that the
path she was on was going to end in her premature death," said Jenson.

"She sincerely wants to feel justice has been served. Her insight is
unique and refreshing." Stalker had been hospitalized several times
after suicide attempts. Brecknell agreed with the sentencing
submission, saying the knife attack was a senseless act of violence,
but also a "plea for help." Stalker's mother and sister were in court.
They wept through the proceedings. Brecknell counted time served at
six months, then imposed the twoyear sentence.

Stalker had no previous record.