Kyle Braeden Furness, the Yorkton man who pled guilty to the June 20 murder of Jimmy Ray Wiebe, was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 12 years last week.
Furness, 21, killed 50-year-old Wiebe as the latter was working an overnight shift at Yorkton's Shell gas station on Smith Street this summer. Furness was charged with first-degree murder four days later and pled guilty to murder in the second degree on November 4.
The victim's family is upset with the outcome, according to Wiebe's nephew Adam Paton. He believes the judge in the case was shown clear evidence of premeditation on Furness's part and does not understand why Furness was allowed to escape a first-degree murder conviction.
"It should be minimum 20 years without parole. But instead, you know, he cried about having a drug problem and a tough life like a million other people who have grown up, and grown up to be successful people, not drug-riddled loser murderers."
Sentencing submissions from the Crown and defense at the Yorkton Court of Queen's Bench on December 7 made many details of the murder public for the first time.
It is now known that Furness shot Wiebe in the head with a modified 22-calibre pistol almost immediately after entering the store. Once Wiebe was on the ground, Furness walked around the counter and shot him again in the head. Furness then fled the store with two cash drawers and a small quantity of cigarettes.
Footage of the murder from three security cameras was shown to the court, which included members of Wiebe's family.
In the courtroom, Furness remained hunched over with his head down for almost the entire proceeding. As the video was shown, Adam Paton shouted at Furness from his seat, "Look up and watch what you did, you coward." Paton was given a warning to remain silent by Justice J.E. McMurtry. After causing a second disruption that afternoon, Paton was removed from the court and arrested.
A portion of footage from Furness's three-hour police interview was also shown. In it, Furness admits to the murder, stating that he was motivated to rob the store by a need to fund his morphine addiction.
Furness breaks down crying when the interviewer shows him a video of his mother urging him to "come clean."
"I wish I never did it. I wish I never took his life. I probably should have did it to myself," says Furness in the video.
Furness tells the interviewer that he waited across the street from the Shell station for about an hour before entering. At one point during the night, Wiebe came out to speak with him. Furness told Wiebe he was waiting for a cab.
Furness didn't want to enter the store, he states in the video, but the "drugs took over."
Furness is heard saying that he did not plan to kill Wiebe, but "got scared" when he saw the worker reaching for a phone behind the counter. He fired the second shot when he saw Wiebe moving on the floor.
"I didn't want him to grab me."
No words were exchanged during the robbery. Wiebe was shot at around 2:30 am and not discovered until almost two and a half hours later by a customer who called 911. Wiebe was deceased by the time paramedics arrived.
Wiebe knew Furness's name and face, acknowledges Furness in the video. Under pressure from the police interviewer, he admits that this may have been a factor in his decision to shoot the man.
Furness became a person of interest to police shortly after the murder based on statements made by people close to him, revealed prosecutor Daryl Bode. Friends and family members told police they had seen Furness showing off a pistol with a sawed-off barrel in the days before the murder and had seen him dressed that night in clothes very similar to those worn by the suspect.
According to statements by Furness and witnesses, the weapon was a 68-year-old pistol stolen by Furness from a home he and his brother had been hired to work on in Saltcoats.
Furness was arrested without incident on June 23 when he voluntarily visited the Yorkton RCMP detachment to discuss an unrelated matter.
Second-degree murder carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison with a parole ineligibility period between 10 and 25 years. Sentencing guidelines recommend that a 10-year ineligibility period be the median sentence issued, but note that "unusual circumstances" are not required for a harsher sentence.
The prosecution asked for an ineligibility period of 14 to 17 years, citing several precedents that fell within that range. Furness's 22 previous offenses show a clear pattern of disregard for the law, said Bode.
Yorkton Legal Aid defense attorney Richard Yaholnitsky called for a sentence with 10 to 12 years of parole ineligibility. Yaholnitsky asked the judge to take into account several mitigating factors including Furness's drug addiction, his difficult childhood, remorseful statements made during his police interview, and his decision to plead guilty at the earliest possible stage. All but one of Furness's previous offenses were non-violent and occurred during his youth, noted the defense attorney.
Furness then made a statement to the court. He apologized to the Wiebe family, calling the summer of the murder "the worst time" in his life. "I'm sorry I took that man away from his family," he said.
Justice McMurtry weighed the brutality of the crime against Furness's apparent remorse and decided on a parole ineligibility period of 12 years.
"Obviously the family is not happy with that," said Adam Paton, who is now facing several charges himself relating to his courtroom disturbance.
Daryl Bode declined to comment on behalf of the prosecution, but defense lawyer Richard Yaholnitsky called the sentence "fair." Anyone, including Furness, would feel that a 12-year parole ineligibility period was light, said the defense lawyer, but the circumstances justified it.
"He's young, he expressed remorse, he told the police he'd prefer if he'd killed himself. Nothing's going to change it for the family, but that doesn't mean he's going to get out of jail in 10 or 12 years. He still has to earn it and behave and show he can change his life."
Furness's second-degree murder plea was accepted because the prosecution had insufficient evidence of planning on Furness's part, said Yaholnitsky.
Furness also received a concurrent six-month sentence for a separate break & enter committed on June 15 at Yorkton's Super C Esso.
In addition to his prison time, Furness was ordered to provide a DNA sample to the national database and is prohibited from possessing weapons for a period of 10 years after his release.
