The older half-brother of the Tumbler Ridge school shooter will serve a three-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to attacking a man with a knife-sharpener during an unrelated 2024 incident.

Jacob Van Rootselaar, 22, was originally charged with attempted murder and breaking and entering, but pleaded guilty to aggravated assault as part of a joint submission in a Fort McMurray courtroom on Friday morning.

A jury trial scheduled for December is now cancelled. With pretrial credit, Van Rootselaar has two years and four months left on his sentence.

An agreed statement of facts read to the Fort McMurray Court of King’s Bench says Van Rootselaar and the victim were drinking together at the victim’s home in October 2024.

Both the Crown and Van Rootselaar’s lawyer say what happened next is hazy. At some point, a fight started after the two got into an argument. The victim was knocked to the ground and Van Rootselaar began bludgeoning and stabbing him with a nearby knife-sharpener.

A drug dealer the two had called earlier that evening arrived at the home and tried to stop the attack. Police were called and Van Rootselaar ran away to a nearby friend’s home. A neighbour saw Van Rootselaar break down that home’s door and called police. The friend later told police he did not want Van Rootselaar charged with breaking and entering.

Officers arriving at the friend’s home found Van Rootselaar covered in blood and hiding under a bed in a basement bedroom.

Defence lawyer Matt Ackerman told the court there would have been “risks at trial for both parties.” Crown lawyer James Hackett said after the sentencing he agreed with that statement.

The drug dealer is the only witness and could not remember key details of the night during a preliminary hearing, said Ackerman. Both lawyers agreed the victim was emotionally and mentally traumatized from the attack.

“Giving testimony at trial is hard for a witness, it can be traumatizing,” Hackett said in an interview after the sentencing.

“I think it would have done him a great harm to do that, and it would have been difficult for him.”

In a brief statement to the court, Van Rootselaar said he was sorry to the victim and will “do the right thing and make my life better.”

Justice Michael Kraus called the attack “vicious, horrific, brutal,” and said the victim was lucky to have survived. Kraus added that being the half-brother — through their father — of Jesse Van Rootselaar, the Tumbler Ridge school shooter, brought the incident “notoriety.” However, the shooting was not a factor during sentencing, he said.

“You’re being sentenced for this matter alone. This matter has nothing to do with the Tumbler Ridge incident,” said Kraus.

Van Rootselaar still faces charges of breaking his parole conditions and allegedly owning brass knuckles, which are considered prohibited weapons.

He was supposed to live at a treatment facility in Drayton Valley, Alta., and then spend house arrest with his father in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., as he awaited trial. A Canada-wide warrant was issued for Van Rootselaar on Feb. 18 when he could not be located. Police arrested him the next day in Sylvan Lake, Alta.

He is scheduled to appear in Red Deer Court of Justice on Monday.