The 21-year-old who gave a lethal overdose of MDMA to Langley teen Carson Crimeni will be spending time behind bars, a B.C. Supreme Court judge said on Thursday.
What is at issue in the manslaughter sentencing hearing taking place on Thursday and Friday in New Westminster courtrooms is how much time.
“There are no reasonable alternatives [to incarceration],” Justice Kathleen Ker noted as the defence lawyers began their arguments on Thursday afternoon. “The question is the length of time.”
Crown prosecutors have asked for a three-year custody and supervision order under the Youth Criminal Justice Act for the young man, who cannot be named because he was 17 at the time of the offense.
He pleaded guilty earlier this year, avoiding a possible lengthy trial.
The guilty plea also avoids the possibility of an adult sentence. In serious crimes, such as murder and manslaughter, judges have leeway to decide whether an offender should be sentenced as a youth or an adult.
The maximum sentence for a youth is three years.
The Crown’s version of that three-year sentence would include two years of time behind bars, and a year of supervised release.
The defense is asking for three years, but with just 12 to 18 months in prison.
Because he was 17 at the time of the offence, but is over 20 now, however long his sentence is, it will be served in an adult provincial prison.
Shortly after Ker made her statement about the length of time being the key issue, the offender, who had been looking uncomfortable since returning from lunch, threw up in the prisoner’s box. His lawyers said it was an issue of nerves.
When proceedings resumed, Ker told him that no decision will be made this week.
She will consider the submissions on sentencing by both Crown and defense lawyers, which include pre-sentencing reports, and rule at a later date. That final date has not yet been scheduled.
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