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Shooter sentenced

UPDATE 11 A.M.

Justin Bourque has been sentenced to serve 75 years in prison before becoming eligible to apply for parole for the June 4 shooting rampage that killed three RCMP officers and wounded two others in Moncton.

Judge David Smith of the Court of Queen's Bench in New Brunswick delivered his precedent-setting ruling today after a sentencing hearing earlier this week during which Bourque apologized to the families of the Mounties he shot.

Bourque's sentence is the harshest in Canada since the last executions in 1962.

He pleaded guilty in August to three counts of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder.

The 24-year-old was facing a mandatory life sentence, so the only issue for Smith to decide was when he could apply for parole.

The Crown sought the maximum sentence of 75 years under a section of the Criminal Code that was amended in 2011.

The defence argued for parole eligibility to be set at 50 years.


ORIGINAL - 

MONCTON, N.B. - Justin Bourque's killing of three Mounties has been described in court as one of the worst crimes in Canadian history, prompting recommendations from Crown and defence lawyers for the harshest sentence in more than 50 years.

Judge David Smith, chief justice of the Court of Queen's Bench in New Brunswick, is scheduled to sentence the 24-year-old Friday, four months after Bourque used a semi-automatic rifle to fatally shoot three officers and wound two others in Moncton's north end.

Bourque pleaded guilty in August to three counts of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder.

The Crown is seeking the maximum sentence — 75 years without eligibility to apply for parole — under a section of the Criminal Code that was amended in 2011.

Prior to that, Bourque would have been handed an automatic life sentence with no chance at parole for 25 years, the mandatory penalty for one or more convictions of first-degree murder.

However, the amended legislation gives the judge the option of extending Bourque's parole ineligibility because he is a multiple murderer. The legislation is called the Protecting Canadians by Ending Sentence Discounts for Multiple Murders Act.

Smith could decide that the 25-year ineligibility period for each of the three murder convictions should be imposed consecutively for a total of 75 years, which means Bourque wouldn't be allowed to apply for parole until he was 99 years old.

Earlier this week, defence lawyer David Lutz said his client, having admitted to the crimes in a detailed, three-hour statement to police, has argued that a 50-year parole ineligibility period would be fair. Lutz had little else to say on his client's behalf, except that Bourque has a defective thought process and inadequate social skills.

If Smith accepts either the Crown or defence recommendations, the sentence would be the harshest since Canada's last executions in 1962.

In September 2013, a judge in Edmonton sentenced an armoured-car guard to life in prison with no chance at parole for 40 years for shooting four of his colleagues during a robbery in June 2012.

Travis Baumgartner had pleaded guilty to one count of first-degree murder, two counts of second-degree murder and a charge of attempted murder.



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