A Manitoba woman who fatally stabbed her husband as their two young children lay asleep has been sentenced to three years in prison.

Rose McDougall, 24, previously pleaded guilty to manslaughter for the April 2007 killing at Wassagamack First Nation.

The Crown had urged Justice Glenn Joyal to sentence McDougall to five years in prison while defence lawyer John Corona urged Joyal to consider a conditional sentence of two years less a day.

Corona argued McDougall was sincerely remorseful, a low risk to re-offend and had the support of community leaders.

The courts are obligated to consider reasonable alternatives to custody when sentencing aboriginal offenders, in recognition of their background and over-representation in the prison system.

'DEEPLTY FELT'

Joyal said McDougall's crime demanded a penitentiary sentence.

"As the Supreme Court of Canada has said ... it is unreasonable to assume that aboriginal peoples do not believe in the principles of deterrence and denunciation," Joyal said. "The impact of an unlawful death is as disruptive and deeply felt in a northern First Nation community as such an unlawful death would be had it occurred anywhere else ... I must take care to not impose a sentence that sends a message suggesting a diminution in the significance of this unlawful death simply because it occurred in an isolated First Nation community."

In the hours prior to the stabbing, McDougall and her husband Raymond McDougall, 23, had spent the night at home with a friend drinking "super juice," a potent home brew.

The couple started arguing after Raymond kicked their friend out of the house for drinking the last of the super juice. Raymond handed McDougall a knife and said, "You know what to do with this."

McDougall stabbed him two times in the chest, puncturing his lung and heart, and a third time in the stomach.

Raymond staggered out the door to his in-laws' home where he collapsed and said, "Rose did this to me."

McDougall walked out of her house with her two children at her side, still holding the bloody knife.

dean.pritchard@sunmedia.ca