Saretzky sentencing delayed
It will be at least another month before convicted triple murderer Derek Saretzky learns his fate.
On Thursday, Saretzky’s lawyer requested time to make written submissions prior to sentencing. After several delays, the request was granted.
The defence is now expected to file written submissions on July 14. The Crown will have an opportunity to file their own submissions on July 20.
The sentencing hearing is then expected to resume on Aug. 9.
Saretzky has been convicted in the 2015 murder of 69-yearold Coleman resident Hanne Meketech, Blairmore resident Terry Blanchette, and Terry’s daughter, two-year-old Hailey Dunbar-Blanchette.
Saretzky will serve a mandatory life sentence for the murders. In the case of multiple murders, the judge may decide that the period of parole ineligibility runs consecutively (one after the other) or concurrently (at the same time).
The Crown stated they were seeking consecutive parole ineligibility in this case, following on the heels of a unanimous jury recommendation for consecutive ineligibility. The Crown is also seeking a five-year concurrent sentence for the indignity to a human body conviction.
If the judge decides to make the ineligibility consecutive, Saretzky will serve 75 years before becoming eligible for parole.
In making his request, prosecutor Michael Fox said a number of factors needed to be considered.
“Mr. Saretzky concocted, created, and devised a plan to execute three people,” he said.
And while Saretzky made a number of references about being directed by God and taunted by the Devil, the Crown pointed out a number of references in taped interviews that contradicted these statements.
“(Was it) God, or the Devil?” he asked. “The Crown suggests that it was neither.”
Fox said the explanation for why Saretzky made religious references in his confessions was due to something he told investigators during one of his taped confessions.
“This is where he says, ‘You think I have a chance if I plead insanity? I think I’m going to try,’” said Fox.
“They were nothing but part of his overall plan, that, if he did get caught, he was laying the groundwork for a potential insanity plea,” Fox said.
The murders might have seemed senseless, but Saretzky had a plan, according to Fox.
Saretzky had stated he thought he had a weak heart and poor blood flow, and he came to believe he could drink blood to improve his health.
It wasn't because of anything he’d read or been told. Fox said for Saretzky, it was instinct.
“He said he drank her blood to be stronger,” said Fox.
Fox said the fact Blanchette and Meketech were left in their homes while Dunbar-Blanchette was taken to the rural campsite for privacy was proof of his real plan - that Dunbar-Blanchette was his ultimate target.
He said the actions displayed moral culpability of the highest level, and “a level of callousness and disregard for human life” which defied any case Fox had been able to find in his research of caselaw.
The vulnerability of the victims – a woman living alone, a man in bed sleeping, and a twoyear-old baby – must also be considered in sentencing.
“The brutal nature of each of these murders has to be considered,” said Fox.
He asked the court to take notice of Saretzky’s behaviour during the trial,
“It has not escaped the Crown’s notice … that for many parts of this trial, Mr. Saretzky has had a smile on his face. His conduct betrays the idea that he harbours any true remorse.”