The ringleader of a group who assaulted, kidnapped and extorted an elderly man was sentenced Thursday to a further 5 1/2 years in prison for his actions.
Wayne Victor Willier, 37, helped put the 67-year-old victim – not 79 years old as the court was told during a sentencing hearing earlier this week – through a near three-day ordeal that began on Feb. 28, 2014. It started when the victim showed up at an 1100-block Ahbau Street home to pick up another man and two teenage girls to drive them home to Burns Lake, after he had taken them to Prince George the previous day.
According to a narrative of the events provided by Prince George provincial court judge Elizabeth Bayliff during her sentencing decision, as the man waited inside the home, the group of three plus five more males who were in the house retreated into the kitchen and reemerged with weapons in hand.
Willier, who was the largest of the group, was carrying what turned out to be a pellet gun although the victim did not know that at the time.
Willier accused the man of inappropriately touching one of the girls when he had earlier driven her to a convenience store to buy cigarettes.
He called the man a pedophile, pointed the pistol at his face and told him he was going to have a rough time if he ended up in jail for a sexual offence.
The two girls were ushered into a back bedroom and Willier began punching the man about the face and head – the victim did not recall anyone else hitting him – before he was taken into the home's bathroom to get cleaned up.
He was then taken back into the kitchen where a towel was put over his head so he could not see.
The kidnappers then ordered him to hand over the keys to his van and his credit and bank cards, and provide the PINs to use them.
The man complied but when one of the others in the group tried to withdraw money from his bank account, he was unsuccessful because it was overdrawn.
Willer threatened that the man would be in "big trouble" if he gave false numbers.
Willier then ordered the man to sign blank vehicle transfer papers for his van and he complied.
He was taken to an Oak Street home in his own van and later to a Redwood Street home, where his captors, led by Willier, arranged such details as setting up baby monitors to allow them to listen for his movement.
The man's head was left uncovered and he was not bound at any time although he believed he would have been had he attempted to get away and feared for his life. Some 30 hours after the initial attack, the man distracted one of his captors and escaped.
Trying to keep out of sight in case they came looking for him, he made his way through alleyways on foot to the home of some people he knew.
Afraid of getting involved, they asked the man to wait in the foyer of the apartment where they lived and the RCMP were called.
The man was taken to hospital suffering from bruising severe enough to swell his eyes shut. As well, his nose was fractured, although he did not need surgery, and he suffered a concussion, according to his victim impact statement.
While he was still being held in the Redwood Street home, his van was stopped for a traffic violation and impounded.
The occupants had scattered before RCMP could make any arrests, but one of Willier's accomplices was found to have been behind the wheel.
And because his pension cheque had been deposited, they were able to withdraw about $500 from the man's account and make some purchases using his bank card adding up to a further $300.
Crown counsel was seeking 12 years in prison and defence counsel four to five years. Bayliff said she settled on eight years after concluding Willier's actions fell in the middle range in terms of seriousness.
As terrifying as the incident was, the man never was tied up, kept in a confined space or tortured and there was very little premeditation or planning, Bayliff said.
"The offences were not committed with a high level of sophistication," she said.
If not for his aboriginal heritage, Bayliff said Willier would have been sentenced to nine to 10 years.
Conversely, if not for his extensive criminal record, which included previous convictions for two similar offences, she said Willier would have been given three to five years.
In issuing her decision, which took about two hours, Bayliff spent much of her time going through a Gladue report for Willier. The reports are drafted to take into account the circumstances of aboriginal offenders, largely because they comprise a disproportionately high percentage of the prison population.
She recounted a tough and unstructured upbringing for Willier, spent mostly in the VLA and complicated by trouble in school and a late diagnosis of dyslexia, which hinders a person's ability to read.
According to the report, Willier appeared to adopt the "most negative aspects" of his aboriginal identity and eventually turned to crime to make a living because he believed there was no point in trying to do otherwise since no one will hire an aboriginal person.
"My understanding from this report is that while there is unquestionably racism in our country and in our communities, what I believe the factor that has been influential here in Mr. Willier's life is that he's also continually receiving the message from those around him that any setback in life or difficulty for example in getting legitimate work is due to racism," Bayliff said.
"Perhaps to put it more simply, he grew up around a lot of negative talk as well."
Willier, who has spent most of his adult life behind bars, has said he plans to leave Prince George once he's completed his sentence to avoid falling back in with the wrong crowd.
Bayliff encouraged him to do so, telling Willier she hopes he "finds the courage to try to live somewhere else."
