The B.C. Court of Appeal has increased by a year the sentence on record for a man convicted of manslaughter for the accidental but fatal shooting of his then fiancee at a Vanderhoof home more than a decade ago, but the outcome will have no influence on the time he must actually serve.
While the term will now go down as three years, Kayne Sabbe Penner will remain to subject the 23-month conditional sentence order he was issued in July 2022 following what amounts to an administrative decision issued Monday in answer to an appeal by Crown prosecution.
A three-judge panel found that the judge who originally sentenced Penner had erred in mischaracterizing the the gravity of the offence and in assessing the respondents moral culpability and concluded that three years imprisonment is the appropriate term.
However, the judges also concluded that forcing Penner to serve an additional year at this point would not be fair given that the offence was committed in December 2012 and the history of the case since then.
Penner was initially found guilty of manslaughter using a firearm in September 2017 and susequently sentenced to the "mandatory minimum" of four years.
But in March 2019, the B.C. Court of Appeal ordered a new trial over concerns about the charge the trial judge issued to the jury prior to deliberations.
In March 2021, a second jury also found Penner guilty of the offence but, in September 2021, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Terence Schultes found the original sentence “grossly disproportionate” and Penner was sentenced to the lesser term.
"Given the extenuating delay in this proceeding and the severe negative effects of reincarceration on the respondent’s rehabilitation, the execution of the post-appeal portion of the sentence is stayed," a summary of the decision says.
On Dec. 20, 2012, Penner was handling a .22-calibre semiautomatic rifle within the confines of his cousin's trailer home in the community 100 kilometres west of Prince George when it went off. The bullet struck April Johnson, 18, in the stomach and she later died in hospital.
