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The victim ran out of the house. A friend took him to hospital.

“This was a shocking event. There was no need for Mr. Nguyen to pull a knife. There was no need for any of this to occur,” said Byrne. “This young man was stabbed because he was wearing the wrong colour sweater. You’re not supposed to wear red.”

The stabbing was hugely traumatic for the victim and his family, said Byrne.

People at the party were too afraid to give formal statements to the police.

Nguyen, who has tattoos all over his face, seems to be proud of his involvement in the Norteños and is not likely to get out of the gang, said Byrne. He has a history of violence and is involved in the drug trade.

The Norteños, first established in Latin American communities in the U.S., use the colour red and the number 14 as symbols.

Nguyen’s guilty plea is meaningful and a mitigating factor, Byrne said. The victim was unable to pick him out of a photo lineup because of the tattoos on his face. “And there was real concern on the part of the victim and witnesses about retaliation if anyone testified.”

Defence lawyer Michael Munro said there was no excuse for Nguyen’s behaviour “and his early guilty plea is an indication of that.”

Nguyen, 28, is still a young man and is devoted to his one-year-old daughter, said Munro.

“He needs to focus on things like that, as opposed to being intoxicated and engaging in dangerous behaviours which caused significant harm to the victim.”

Higinbotham noted that it would have been difficult and perhaps traumatic for some of the witnesses to testify. He gave Nguyen credit of five months for time spent in pretrial custody. This means the remaining sentence is 19 months.

ldickson@timescolonist.com