11-year jail sentence for Kelowna man who struck roommate with car before stabbing him 60 times

Photo: Castanet

Police investigate after Lau's body was found in Okanagan Lake on July 29, 2022.

A man who ran over and then fatally stabbed his roommate along the shore of Okanagan Lake in 2022 will spend several more years in jail, after striking a plea deal with the Crown Friday morning.

Wyne Zablan, 28, was set to begin a six-week jury trial later this month for a first-degree murder charge, but he instead pleaded guilty Friday to the lesser charge of manslaughter.

Agreeing with a joint sentencing submission from the Crown and defence, Justice Steven Wilson sentenced Zablan to an 11-year jail sentence. With enhanced credit for time served, he left with about seven years and four months to serve.

Zablan has been behind bars for two-and-a-half years, after he was arrested on July 31, 2022 for the murder of his roommate, 24-year-old Jack Lau. Lau's identity was never disclosed by police, and Friday's sentencing hearing was the first time Lau's identity was made public.

Lau was from Malaysia and had come to Canada to study business at university. He was a roommate of Zablan's but the pair became involved in “disputes over noise” in July 2022, according to Crown prosecutor Chris Balison.

“[It] started as verbal arguments and progressed to include an allegation that Mr. Lau urinated in Mr. Zablan's shoes,” Balison said. “Attempts by the other roommates and the landlord were unable to peacefully resolve the dispute.”

Stabbed 60 times

A surveillance camera at the SNC Lavalin building at the west end of the William R. Bennett bridge captured Zablan and Lau arriving in the area in Zablan's car just after midnight on July 29, 2022. The video showed the pair “loitering” in the area for about two hours, before Lau began walking away from the car at 2:29 a.m.

Zablan got into his car and honked his horn, and when Lau began walking back to the car, Zablan gunned his car and struck Lao. Zablan's car got high-centred on a concrete barrier near Highway 97, while Lau was thrown down an embankment towards the shore of Okanagan Lake.

While surveillance footage didn't capture what occurred down the embankment, Zablan admitted to stabbing Lau multiple times, before throwing Lau's body and the knife into the lake. Lau suffered upwards of 60 stab wounds, along with “two areas of significant stab wounds in his neck.”

Photo: Facebook

Wyne Zablan

Shortly after Zablan returned to his vehicle, a passerby stopped to help with what she thought had been a simple car crash. Zablan's hand was bleeding and he told the woman he had struck a deer and cut his hand on the vehicle's broken glass.

Emergency crews arrived and firefighters were quickly suspicious that the crash had not involved a deer. Paramedics also observed Zablan was wet from the waist down. Despite this, Zablan was treated for his hand injury at Kelowna General Hospital and his mother picked him up and took him home.

Later that day, at about 1:30 p.m., a boater in the area discovered Lau's body in the shallow water. Officers found a large amount of blood along the shore and discovered a knife, which contained DNA from both Zablan and Lau.

Zablan was surveilled by police, before he was arrested at his parents' home on July 31. He's remained in custody every since, and he was denied bail back in April of last year.

Undiagnosed mental health disorder

While first-degree murder involves a killing that was planned and deliberate, manslaughter does not involve the intent to kill. But while the circumstances of Lau's death, which involved upwards of 60 stab wounds, appears to have been deliberate, Balison said Zablan's undiagnosed and untreated mental health issues at the time of the killing “weighed heavily” in his decision to accept a manslaughter plea instead of murder.

“After he was arrested and while he was in custody, Mr. Zablan required psychiatric care and it was determined that he suffered from a schizophrenic illness causing him to have perceptual problems which significantly influence his behaviours and actions,” Balison told the court.

First-degree murder carries an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years, but with the manslaughter conviction, Zablan will be eligible to apply for parole after serving one-third of his sentence, in the spring of 2027.

Zablan was born in the Philippines, but moved to Canada with his mother and became a Canadian citizen in 2019. While he didn't address the court during his sentencing, his lawyer Taylor McLean said Zablan is remorseful and feels shame for the killing of Lao.

"He says he wishes to be a good citizen, to make some further contribution to Canada and make his parents proud," McLean said.

'Heartbreak and emptiness'

In a victim impact statement read out to the court by Balison, Lau's father said the death of his son has “shattered” his family.

“Our family gatherings, once filled with laughter and joy when Jack was with us, are now steeped in sorrow and sadness. Every day is a struggle consumed by anxiety and depression. The process of grieving for a child is not a temporary experience, it's a lifelong burden we must bear. The heartbreak and emptiness Jack's passing has left with us are beyond words to describe.”

Lau's father also described how his wife now regularly locks herself away to cry inconsolably for hours, and her health has deteriorated since the loss of her son.

“Jack was a promising young man full of potential who sought to contribute to society. His murder ... has robbed him of his future and us of a son, who brought light and hope into our lives. The emptiness he has left behind is unbearable and we are haunted by the senseless nature of his death.”