Brett Davidson had just finished walking his dog in Calgary and was texting with his new girlfriend when he ran into Cory Miklic, a violent criminal who launched a “brutal and vicious attack,” stabbing him more than a dozen times.
On Tuesday, 44-year-old Miklic pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in front of Davidson’s family, who watched on from the gallery at the Court of King’s Bench. They listened as prosecutor Darren Maloney detailed the crime, reading from an agreed statement of facts.
Davidson, 39, was a retired navy veteran who’d just moved to Calgary and was living in an Inglewood condo building on Ninth Avenue.
On the afternoon of Aug. 27, 2022, Davidson was in the hallway of his building when he was confronted by Miklic, whose mother lived down the hall. The two men had never met.
33 assault convictions
Miklic, who has 33 convictions for assault-related offences, was on bail for assault when he used a kitchen knife to stab Davidson at least 13 times.
“There is no explanation for why Mr. Miklic killed Mr. Davidson,” said prosecutor Katrina Sole Kahler in her submissions before Court of King’s Bench Justice David Labrenz.
Mid-attack, two neighbours from the fourth floor heard a violent commotion, someone calling “help,” and opened their doors to see Miklic standing over Davidson and stabbing him.
Both neighbours ran into their apartments to call 911 as Miklic ran to his mother’s condo, where he left the knife in a kitchen drawer.
‘We tried to comfort him’
Badly injured, Davidson made his way down the building’s stairs and collapsed on the sidewalk in front of the gym that occupies its ground floor. He was bleeding heavily, begging for help.
Gym manager Stephen Leonard ran inside to grab towels and rushed to Davidson, applying pressure to his wounds.
“A few others joined me and together we tried to comfort him and keep him talking until help arrived,” wrote Leonard in his victim impact statement.
“Brett told me that it had been a completely random attack.”
Leonard knew Davidson and his dog from the neighbourhood; they’d exchanged greetings.
“It was deeply confronting that someone I recognized from those ordinary moments was suddenly in front of me, gravely injured and fighting for his life,” said Leonard.
Davidson told those who were helping him that he was struggling to breath.
According to the agreed statement of facts, Davidson told them, “I’m dying. I’m going to die,” before losing consciousness.
Leonard wrote that “it felt like he died in my arms, like I was there for his last words, his last breath.”
Miklic went to movie theatre
In fact, first responders and then doctors at Foothills Medical Centre were able to keep Davidson alive for two more hours before he was pronounced dead around 3:45 that afternoon.
Meanwhile, Miklic left the condo building, got on the CTrain and headed to the northeast. He walked to a Cineplex theatre and watched a movie.
Afterwards, the killer returned to the Inglewood condo building, where he was arrested.
Thirteen members of Davidson’s family wrote victim impact statements but asked that they not be read aloud in Miklic’s presence.
Labrenz adjourned briefly to read them privately.
‘He was my person’
The prosecution read aloud a statement authored by a woman named Marnie who had just started dating Davidson.
“For a short time, he was my person and I was his,” wrote Marnie.
“He was love and kindness. He was witty and quick and smart … he adored his family.”
Marnie said Davidson talked constantly about his parents, brothers and friends who lived on Vancouver Island. Davidson had recently moved from there to Calgary in search of a new adventure.
“He started so many sentences with, ‘When you meet …’”
Davidson’s plan was to take Marnie to meet his family on Vancouver Island for their 40th birthdays, which were just weeks apart.
Instead, Marnie met them at his funeral.
‘Incomprehensible’
In handing down Miklic’s sentence, Labrenz commented on the senselessness of the crime.
“It’s shocking, it’s appalling, it’s terrifying, it’s inexplicable, it’s incomprehensible,” said the judge.
Labrenz sentenced Miklic to life in prison and imposed a parole ineligibility period of 13 years, jointly proposed by the prosecutors and defence lawyer Balfour Der.
