Court reduces homicide sentences for gang members
The Quebec Court of Appeal has reduced the sentences of two street gang members who killed an innocent man after ruling the sentencing judge erred by allowing their immigration status to be an aggravating factor while determining their prison terms.
Raymond Ellis, a 25-year-old Montreal businessman, was killed on Oct. 23, 2005, by a group of men who were part of a Blues-affiliated street gang. The attack happened inside an after-hours club on StDenis St. where Ellis, a graduate of Dawson College, had gone with two friends. At the same time, Evens Belleville and John Tshiamala were inside the club for a gathering of about 30 people mourning the death of Passius Rydewood, a fellow gang member who had been murdered a month before. The group somehow mistook Ellis for the person they believed killed Rydewood.
Several members of the group attacked Ellis and his friends. Ellis was punched, kicked and stabbed 11 times.
Seven people, including a male who was a youth at the time, were charged in connection with Ellis’s death. The youth received a life sentence after he was found guilty of second-degree murder. Two other accused were acquitted.
Two men — Mclee Charles and Ernso Theobrun — pleaded guilty to manslaughter in October 2013, while Belleville and Tshiamala opted to go on trial before a jury and were convicted of manslaughter. Theobrun was sentenced to a 10year prison term and Charles was sentenced to nine years.
Belleville, 34, and Tshiamala, 32, were convicted of manslaughter in 2014. The prosecutor in the case recommended that Belleville receive an 11-year prison term and requested a 12-year sentence for Tshiamala. Superior Court Justice Michael Stober took the rare step of going beyond the prosecution’s recommendations and sentenced the men to 14 years and 15 years, respectively.
While delivering the sentence, Stober placed an emphasis on how the families of both men were welcomed to Canada and received benefits like free education and health care. Tshiamala was a Congolese political refugee and Belleville’s family arrived here from Haiti.
“The governments of Canada, Quebec, as well as the municipality of Montreal, welcomed them, with their families, with open arms. They both had the advantages of Canadian citizens. They have to answer for their criminal acts in the same way as any Canadian citizen. Like all Canadian citizens and people admitted into Canada with a certain status, Tshiamala and Belleville had access to free education, free medicare, employment insurance and, in this case, welfare,” Stober wrote in his decision. “The two accused not only participated in criminal activity, but they showed a lack of respect and flagrant contempt for the administration of justice and toward the governments of Canada and Quebec, who welcomed their families while there were atrocities in their respective countries, be it wars, violence, political instability or climatic tragedies.”
Both men appealed their convictions and the sentences. In a decision delivered on Friday, the Quebec Court of Appeal upheld the verdicts but reduced their sentences to what the prosecutor suggested were fair prison terms.
Justice Martin Vauclair, the judge whose opinion was cited among the panel of three who heard the appeal, wrote he was unable to convince himself that Stober’s opinion on Belleville and Tshiamala’s status in Canada “did not play a role as an aggravating factor in the judge’s reflection in determining the number of years in the sentence. The importance accorded to these questions (during the sentencing hearing) and in the decision allows no other conclusion. These considerations were not pertinent and it is difficult to see how they could be in light of the sentences suggested by (the prosecution), which reasonably reflect the objective gravity of the crimes and the subjective responsibility of (Belleville and Tshiamala).”
Governments of Canada, Quebec and Montreal welcomed them with open arms.