Man who shot drug dealer given seven-year sentence
Nearly fatally shooting a minor drug dealer to avoid paying back a $6,100 debt has landed a city man a seven-year prison sentence.
Justice Suzanne Bensler on Friday also handed Chayce Anthony Krause an additional six months in custody for breaching bail conditions.
Bensler said the gravity of Krause’s crime required a harsher sentence than the five to 5 1/2 years suggested by defence lawyer Balfour Der.
Crown prosecutor Ryan Jenkins had argued an eight-year term for the shooting was appropriate.
Krause, 22, pleaded guilty last October to discharging a firearm with intent to endanger life in connection with the Dec. 31, 2013, shooting of Calgary man Michael McGill.
McGill, then 33, was a recreational drug user who sold small quantities of marijuana to close friends.
In early December 2013 Krause convinced McGill that he had found a great deal and could get a pound of marijuana for half its normal street value.
Although skeptical, McGill was eventually convinced to loan him $3,000, money he expected would be returned in two to four days.
McGill was approached by Krause about a week and a half later and was asked for an additional $3,100.
Desperate to get his original money back, McGill agreed.
Around 4 p.m. on Dec. 31, Krause texted McGill that he had the money and just after 9 p.m. sent a second text that he was on the way and they should meet in the alley behind the victim’s Athlone Road S.E. home.
Krause was on the other side of the gate, by the open trunk of his Mitsubishi Lancer.
As McGill walked through the open gate, Krause reached into the trunk, pulled out a firearm, and shot him.
McGill was hospitalized in life-threatening condition, and after multiple surgeries, still has about 100 pellets in his bowel.
Bensler said the crime has had a devastating toll on the victim, who has undergone 15 surgeries and more are expected.
She noted McGill was rushed to hospital in lifethreatening condition after Krause fled the scene.
“The surgical team were not confident he’d survive the night,” the Court of Queen’s Bench judge said.
Doctors were able to remove about 40 pellets from his abdomen.
Last month, McGill told court that despite a lifetime of physical and emotional pain ahead of him, he was glad to be given a second chance.