Perhaps the highest-profile case to reach a resolution at the Prince George courthouse this year was that of Garrett Steven George.
The Nadleh man was sentenced in November to a further eight years and four months in prison for beating his girlfriend, Destiny Rae Tom, to death in a drunken rage following a March 2013 house party on the reserve near Fraser Lake.
Some heart-wrenching testimony was given in the days leading up to the decision, most of it outlining the years of abuse Tom suffered at the hands of the man Justice Miriam Gropper described as both the one she loved and her tormentor.
Roughly 70 people, most from the Palling reserve where Tom grew up, attended the sentencing hearing.
Of course, Garrett was not the only person sentenced for a serious crime in 2016.
Here's a recap of some of the cases The Citizen covered this year:
A 66-year-old Prince George man was sentenced to six years in prison for repeatedly forcing sex on an 11-year-old girl, getting her pregnant in the process.
The man, who cannot be identified under a court-ordered publication ban against information that would identify the victim, was a close friend of her family.
In passing sentence, Prince George provincial court judge Shannon Keyes called the man's actions as "serious and as invasive as it can possibly get."
Keanen Drew Norman Duncan was sentenced to a further four years in prison and designated a long-term offender for an "unprovoked" and "savage" attack on a 66-year old woman who was taking her dog for a walk through a local park early in 2013.
He initially denied carrying out the attack but RCMP noticed a crescent-shaped cut on his left-ring finger from where the woman bit him and his story about what he was doing at the time was not supported by evidence from a surveillance camera. RCMP executed a search warrant and found clothing from the woman and a bandana that turned out to be soaked in her blood.
Bradley Douglas Barr was sentenced to a further six years and one month in prison for nearly killing an adversary with shotgun blasts during a confrontation at a marijuana growop in 2012.
Although a lengthy term, Barr could have been sentenced to as much as life in prison had he been found guilty of attempted murder, which carries a maximum term of life in prison. Instead, he was found guilty of discharging a firearm with an attempt to wound or disfigure.
Wayne Victor Willier was sentenced to a further 5 1/2 years in prison for being the ringleader of a group who assaulted, kidnapped and extorted a 67-year-old man over the course of a three-day ordeal that began with an unfounded accusation he had inappropriately touched a girl.
They forced him to hand over his personal identification numbers and used them to withdraw about $500 from the man's account and make some purchases using his bank card adding up to a further $300.
Mercedes Rae Jewett was sentenced to a further three years, seven months in prison and Hayden Lee Alwood a further three years, three months for their roles in "vicious, cowardly" swarming-style attacks against two youth in 2013.
Jewett was the ringleader of the attacks, launched in the belief one of the two had snuck into her room and molested her and her friend while they were asleep - concerns that were "without a shred of credible evidence."
One of the victims was sodomized with a mop handle, hit over the head with a frying pan and thrown out onto a snow bank near the apartment building where the attacks occurred. It was the urging of others, not Jewett, that ended the attack and if it had gone on, the youth "could easily have been killed."
Christopher Clayton Scott McGuiney was sentenced to four years in jail for veering into the oncoming lane and killing a fellow Fraser Lake man while driving drunk in January 2014.
McGuiney was also prohibited from driving for 10 years once he's completed his time for the death of Duane Francis Pearson.
McGuiney had past convictions for driving with a blood-alcohol level over .08 and driving while impaired and a number of other alcohol-related driving suspensions. In 2007, he was issued a five-year driving ban.
McGuiney had been drinking at a friend's home in Fraser Lake from early in the afternoon to about 8:20 p.m. when he and two others decided to drive to a pub in Fort Fraser. He was behind the wheel of a large pickup truck when just six minutes after leaving the home, he lost control and veered into the oncoming lane, striking Pearson's SUV.
A 43-year-old Prince George area man was sentenced to nine years in prison for committing incest against his teenage daughter.
In issuing the term, Prince George provincial court judge Dan Weatherly said he agreed with Crown counsel's characterization of the acts, committed over a two-to-three year period beginning when the girl was 11 years old, as "reprehensible."
The man, who cannot be named under a court-ordered publication ban, had guardianship of the girl after his relationship with her mother had broke down.
"She had a right that her father would provide for her, protect her from harm and rather than do that he took advantage of the situation for his own sexual gratification," Weatherly said.
Weatherly effectively agreed with Crown prosecution's position on sentencing, which was for nine to 10 years. Defence counsel had argued for five to seven years.
A 37-year-old Fort St. James woman was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison for making pornography involving her son and daughter and then sending the images and videos to a man she met through an internet dating site.
The acts occurred about a half-dozen times over a two- to three-month period beginning in early November 2010 when the children were 11 and 12 years old. The law caught up to her in April 2013 when police uncovered the images on the man's computer and traced them back to her home.
The man was eventually sentenced to four years in prison with the woman testifying at his preliminary inquiry in Calgary.
Both children want no contact with the woman.
