Triple murderer given three consecutive life sentences
MURDERS OF THREE CROWSNEST PASS RESIDENTS DREW NATIONAL INTEREST
The events happened in 2015, but the true gruesome nature of the crimes only became known to public during the trial in 2017.
It was the biggest trial at the Lethbridge courthouse in years, drawing teams of journalists from Calgary and full-out national coverage.
On June 28, 2017, 24-year-old Derek Saretzky was found guilty of the 2015 murders of 69-year-old Coleman resident Hanne Meketech, Blairmore resident Terry Blanchette and Terry’s daughter, two-yearold Hailey Dunbar-Blanchette.
On Aug. 9 in Lethbridge, Justice William Tilleman deemed parole ineligibility to be consecutive for Saretzky — meaning three terms of 25 years before he is eligible for parole — 75 years in total.
Due to the nature of the case and the significant coverage the trial drew, Saretzky is the Lethbridge Herald’s 2017 “Newsmaker of the Year.”
Saretzky was also handed a five-year concurrent sentence for offering an indignity to human remains for acts committed against Dunbar-Blanchette and the destruction of her body in a rural firepit.
Note: The Herald originally chose to run specific details due to the heightened level of the case, but chose to omit the trial’s graphic content from this recap story.
After four weeks of gripping testimony from witnesses, family members of both the accused and the victims, as well as RCMP officers and forensics experts, Tilleman handed his ruling on June 28.
“No one could possibly undo the hurt Mr. Saretzky has caused,” said Tillman to the court that day.
At the end of the trial, Tilleman said the three murders were a “grave injury” inflicted on the communities of the Crowsnest Pass and he addressed specific statements made by friends and family of the slain during victim impact statements.
He agreed with the jury recommendation that Saretzky should be served with consecutive periods of parole ineligibility.
“It was not just the security of the community that was destroyed, but also the security of Mr. Saretzky’s own family, and the Blanchette family, and the friends of (Meketech),” he said.
He said it was “greatly disturbing” that after he killed Meketech, Saretzky had time to consider the murders of Blanchette and Dunbar-Blanchette.
Tilleman said five days passed between the murders, and that for these five days, Saretzky would have been surrounded by the grief and terror of his entire community.
In passing his sentence, Tilleman told the court Saretzky will have almost no chance of ever getting out of prison, allowing this chapter the communities and the lives of those involved to close.
“The community, and all of those involved in the criminal process can now heal,” he said. “There are terrible, incomprehensible things that happen in our lives. The murders of Hanne, Terry and Hailey fit that category.”
During the trail, the Crown had argued several factors of Saretzky’s personality were aggravating factors in the sentence, including his lack of remorse, indifference to human life, tendencies toward violence and his “diabolical nature.”
Tilleman said the fact Saretzky’s reaction to some of the evidence, including smiling in the courtroom — would not be part of his decision. However, he agreed there did not appear to be any remorse from Saretzky.
Following sentencing, there were tears in the courtroom. Saretzky, however, did not appear to react as he stood for the sentence to be read, and then was led from the courtroom.
“Given the current state of the law, it is not an entirely unexpected decision,” said defence lawyer Patrick Edgerton. “It’s, of course, not what Mr. Saretzky was hoping for, but it’s not a great surprise “
Crown prosecutor Photini Papadatou thanked the work of police and others involved in the case from the beginning, and said she was heartened by how the communities involved came together to deal with the murders.
“This community came together to address a horrendous act,” she said. “They did so with dignity and equanimity and, I think, has restored my faith in both justice and how the community dealt with possibly one of the worst cases this province has ever seen.”
In September, Saretzky filed a notice of appeal, via lawyer Balfour Der’s office, to the Alberta Court of Appeal in Calgary seeking a “new trial” and “the imposition of a fit sentence.”
In court documents filed, the grounds of appeal for the conviction include the statement “the trial judge erred in law by finding that the statements of the Appellant to the authorities were admissible as evidence.”
For the appeal to the sentence, the grounds of appeal refer to the consecutive parole ineligibility periods violating the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and is “therefore unconstitutional and of no force and effect. The trial judge thus erred in law by ordering three consecutive 25-year parole ineligibility periods.”
“The defence’s position is that the 25year periods of parole ineligibility for Counts 1, 2, and 4 should run concurrently to one another,” wrote Edgerton in court documents submitted on July 14.
“In addition, the sentence for Count 3 should run concurrent. Therefore, the total parole ineligibility period should be 25 years.”
In making the 75-year request in court in June, prosecutor Michael Fox said a number of factors needed to be considered.
“Mr. Saretzky concocted, created and devised a plan to execute three people,” Fox said, adding the actions displayed moral culpability of the highest level, and “a level of callousness and disregard for human life.”
The defence said, if the consecutive option happens, “there is no possibility of one day being eligible for a parole hearing and no incentive to be a model inmate of follow the rules of the institution.”
Saretzky will be 97 years old before he is eligible for parole. An appeal date has not yet been announced. Follow @NKuhlHerald on Twitter With files from J.W. Schnarr and Delon Shurtz