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A man who pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for stabbing a woman to death in her Prince George apartment was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison without eligibility for parole for 15 years.
In issuing the sentence to Dennis Daniel Gladue, 38, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Gordon Weatherill endorsed a joint submission presented by Crown and defence counsel during a hearing the day before.
According to an agreed statement of facts, Gladue murdered Christin Marion West, 35, on Aug. 2, 2021 and her body was found five days later.
That Gladue pleaded guilty early in the process and is Indigenous failed to earn him the minimum 10 year without eligibility for parole.
The term fell in the mid-range of the 10-to-25 years allowed under the Criminal Code and was in the upper range of the 12-15 years case law suggests is appropriate given the circumstances, Weatherill said, noting West was an Indigenous woman who was murdered in her own home by a person she knew.
Also working against Gladue was evidence that West had been stabbed at least 33 times and that some of the wounds appeared defensive in nature as the victim tried to ward off her attacker. Gladue also admitted to covering her in a blanket and then pouring bleach on her before leaving the scene in her car.
His criminal record also came into play. It includes two convictions for assaulting common law spouses, one for assaulting his mother and one for sexual interference involving a young girl for which he was sentenced to five years in prison.
Gladue has also been convicted several times of breaching release orders and alcohol played a "significant role" in most of the offences, Weatherill noted.
Weatherill found Gladue's actions in the death of Christin West amounted to "moral culpability at the high end of the spectrum."
Gladue had told police West had pulled the knife when an argument between the two broke out. A struggle over the weapon ended when Gladue plunged the knife into her neck and then continued to stab the woman "so she would die fast and not suffer."
Second-degree murder implies that the act was committed on impulse or in a rage rather than with planning and forethought.
That West had initiated the fight was "slightly mitigating" but Gladue's response was "disproportionate to the threat he was facing," Weatherill said as he recalled comments from counsel during the hearing on Tuesday.
Weatherill recounted a troubled upbringing for Gladue. Heavy alchol consumption and drug abuse had been part of his life since age 14 and by age 17 was out living on his own. Although Gladue had spent some time living with West in her apartment, his primary home at the time of her death was an encampment in downtown Prince George.
Gladue's background was "all too common among Indigenous persons who come before the courts," Weatherill said.
The outcome drew a mixed reaction.
"It's justice but it doesn't feel like it because she's gone," West's sister Nicole West said.
"It relieves the pain that was being born but it will never bring her back," mother Beatrice West said as a drumming circle in memory of Christin West was held outside the courthouse following the hearing.
