A former Halifax bar bouncer has been sentenced to four years in prison for the death of a patron on Christmas Eve 2022.
Alexander Pishori Levy was found guilty of manslaughter in the death of Ryan Sawyer, 31, who had been in town from Ontario to visit family over the holidays.
At the time, Levy was employed as the head of security at the now-closed Halifax Alehouse bar in downtown Halifax.
During his judge-alone trial in September 2025, Levy told the court he applied a chokehold on Sawyer outside the bar during a scuffle. Sawyer suffered a heart attack and later died in hospital.
Levy’s defence argued his actions were in self-defence, which Nova Scotia Supreme Court Justice James Chipman rejected in his decision.
Chipman said he did not believe Levy in “virtually every critical area” of his testimony and called Levy’s version of what happened as “incredibly contrived and self-serving.”
Levy was also found guilty of criminal negligence causing death, but a judicial stay was granted on that charge because of a legal principle against multiple convictions for a single criminal matter.
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In addition to his time in federal custody, his sentence includes a 10-year firearms prohibition and a DNA order.
In a written sentencing decision released Friday, Justice Chipman wrote that he wanted to reiterate how tragic the case was.
“Mr. Levy will no doubt bear the emotional burden of these events for the rest of his life,” wrote Chipman.
“Ryan Sawyer was a loving, loved young man taken down in the prime of his life. I know that this sentence will do little to ease the terrible suffering of Ryan’s family and friends who must continue to go on with their lives without him.”
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