Second degree murder
R. v. K.C.
A publication ban applies. The offender is not named.
- Below the Crown's ask
Sentence and the Crown's position
Both are life sentences, so the bars compare how long before parole can be considered.
What the law allows
The offender was convicted by a jury of two counts of second degree murder for a 2018 shooting in Vancouver that killed two people, one of them a 15-year-old passenger in a passing car. Life imprisonment was mandatory; the Crown sought parole ineligibility of 20 years and the defence 10 and 12 years. Associate Chief Justice Holmes imposed concurrent life sentences with no parole eligibility for 17 years, citing the danger to the public and the offender's violation of three firearms prohibition orders.
In the judge's words
1As I have discussed, …'s degree of responsibility for the offences is high. Also, there are many aggravating circumstances, some of them significantly so, such as the extreme danger to the public …'s conduct created, and his flagrant violation of three firearms prohibition orders imposed by other courts. There are mitigating circumstances, but most of these are not of the same magnitude as the aggravating circumstances.
The record
- Convicted of
- Second degree murder (CC 231(7), 2 counts)
- Prior convictions
- 11 prior convictions, 4 violent1
- At the time of the offence
- Not stated1
- Defence asked for
- Life, no parole for 12 years1
- Mandatory minimum
- Applied1
- Appeal
- Not yet checked
- Counsel
- Crown: D.P. Montrichard, K.L. Turnbull, K.J. Elvin-Jensen, A.D. Flanders
Defence: A. Nelson, B. Anderson, C. Doherty
Sources
- R. v. K.C., 2026 BCSC 1289 Court decision, CanLII, July 9, 2026
[5] The Crown submits that the period of ineligibility should be 20 years for each murder, the two periods concurrent to each other as the law requires.
the defence submits that normally the appropriate period would be 15 years absent special circumstances, but it should be reduced to 12 years
[4] For each count of second degree murder, the sentence must be imprisonment for life.
[33] … has a significant criminal record (exhibit 2, tab 2). As a youth, he was convicted for armed robbery and kidnapping. As an adult, he was convicted in 2015 for unauthorized possession of a prohibited or restricted weapon, and in 2016 for robbery and using an imitation firearm during the commission of an indictable offence. His criminal record also includes six convictions at various times in 2015 and 2016 for failing to comply with court orders.
[124] As I have discussed, …'s degree of responsibility for the offences is high. Also, there are many aggravating circumstances, some of them significantly so, such as the extreme danger to the public …'s conduct created, and his flagrant violation of three firearms prohibition orders imposed by other courts. There are mitigating circumstances, but most of these are not of the same magnitude as the aggravating circumstances.
[4] For each count of second degree murder, the sentence must be imprisonment for life. … [125] In my view, the appropriate period of ineligibility to apply for parole is 17 years for each of the two offences. … [129] Those sentences are concurrent to each other.
- R. v. K.C., 2026 BCSC 1289 Court decision, Courts of British Columbia