Man gets life in prison for mistaken identity double murder in Cranbrook

Double murderer sentenced

Photo: Contributed

Jeffrey Todd Taylor and Leanne Laura MacFarlane were shot to death on May 29, 2010, near Cranbrook.

A man has been sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 14 years in relation to a double homicide in Cranbrook in 2010.

Colin Correia pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder and was sentenced Friday in a Vancouver courtroom, reports the CBC.

Correia was initially acquitted of killing Leanne MacFarlane and Jeffrey Todd Taylor, but that acquittal was appealed by the Crown and a new trial was ordered.

Correia, who was charged with two counts of first-degree murder, pleaded down to second-degree murder rather than face that new trial. Crown and defence came to a joint submission, or plea deal.

RCMP were called to a shooting at a rural residence off Highway 3/93 on May 29, 2010. and found a woman dead and a man with severe injuries of which he later died.

At the time, RCMP said it was a targeted incident but that the dead were not the intended targets.

The police's theory was that MacFarlane and Taylor were killed by mistake, and that the intended target was a previous tenant of the residence, Doug Mahon, who was a member of a criminal rival gang.

In 2013, Correia and another man were convicted of conspiracy to commit murder against Mahon.