Perhaps the biggest case to pass through the Prince George courthouse in 2018 ended with three men sentenced to lengthy terms behind bars for the shooting death of Jordan Taylor McLeod.
Each of Darren Cayley Daniel Sundman and Sebastian Blake Martin were found guilty of second-degree murder and respectively sentenced to 16 and 13 years without eligibility to apply for parole while Kurtis Riley Sundman was sentenced to a further seven years seven months and 15 days for manslaughter.
A judge found McLeod was shot to death on Upper Fraser Road and his body dumped off a forest service road west of the city.
A mid-level drug dealer, McLeod, who was 24 at the time of his death, had been supplying product to the Sundmans to sell in the Vanderhoof area.
But in an apparent falling out with the brothers, he started supplying another man, Tanner James, while also striking up a relationship with Darren Sundman's ex-girlfriend, Stacey Stevenson.
The trouble reached a boiling point when McLeod found himself in a pickup truck with the brothers, Martin and Stevenson.
All three of McLeod's assailants were high on drugs, ranging from methamphetamine in the cases of the Sundmans to a "speedball" of heroin and cocaine for that of Martin.
For reasons not entirely clear, the mood turned ugly with Darren Sundman hitting McLeod in the head with the butt of his gun as he sat behind him. With Kurtis Sundman behind the wheel, they passed through Prince George and sped along Highway 16, telling McLeod he had no choice but to jump out of the truck.
When Kurtis Sundman turned onto Upper Fraser Road and slowed down as a consequence, McLeod did jump out. The truck was pulled over and the three went after McLeod. Stevenson, who remained in the vehicle, became a key witness at the trial.
The sentences were issued in July following a lengthy trial.
Drug-related gunplay was also a theme in a trial for two men and a woman convicted of driving to Mackenzie in a stolen vehicle and opening fire on two men as they stood in a front yard. One of them suffered a wound to his calf.
For that July 7, 2016 incident, Kelly Michael Richet was sentenced to a further four years and five months in prison, Christopher Ryan Russell was sentenced to a further three years and 11 months, both terms issued in July, and Miranda Leigh Dingwall was sentenced in June to slightly more than two more years.
In August, Robyn Glenn Derksen was sentenced to a further seven years and nine months for luring a woman into his home on the night of Oct. 4, 2015 with the intent of murdering her. She managed to escape, but not before she had a serious scare.
Derksen later told police he had a "demon in him that came out when he was drunk," and had been looking for a victim to murder for as much as two years, oftentimes carrying around a box cutter as he roamed the city.
He pleaded guilty to attempted murder following a preliminary inquiry.
In September, a father and son were sentenced for luring a woman to a forest service road east of the city and then attacking her with a machete.
James Stanley Filiatrault was sentenced to nine years and son William Thomas Filiatrault was sentenced to seven years for the Nov. 5, 2016 incident.
And in November, Jeff John Lapier was sentenced to a further 23 months in jail for pulling the trigger on a woman who was to be a key witness at a trial after luring her to Moore's Meadow on Feb. 15, 2016. Lapier had been sentenced to six years in total but received credit of four years and one month for time served prior to sentencing.
Looking ahead to 2019, a case for four men accused of a drug-related double murder has reached the pre-trial stage.
Each of Seaver Tye Miller, Aaron Ryan Moore, Joshua Steven West and Perry Andrew Charlie are accused of first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of Thomas Burt Reed, 51, of Burns Lake and David Laurin Franks, 46, of Prince George and the attempted murder of a third man, all found Jan. 26, 2017 in a car off the side of Foothills Boulevard near North Nechako Road.
As well, a trial is set for January for Thomas Joshua Toman and Julien Naseem Abdala Yasin Lazarre, each charged with attempted murder with a firearm from an alleged Dec. 16, 2017 home invasion in the VLA.
In December, a charge of attempted murder against Michael Campbell-Alexander was stayed. He pleaded guilty to discharging a firearm with intent to wound and killing an animal from an Oct. 22, 2017 shootout at a 200-block Tamarack Street drug house.
He will be sentenced once a pre-sentence report has been completed.
In November, Cody Aubrey Lornsten was sentenced to a further 2 1/2 years in prison for wielding a prohibited firearm - a sawed off shotgun - from the incident.
