Murder charge laid in VLA slaying

A man with a history of deadly violence has been charged with murder in relation to an assault that turned fatal over the weekend.

Christopher Clarke Prince, 35, also faces one count each of assault with a weapon and uttering threats, according to court records.

He was arrested shortly after Prince George RCMP were called to a report of a “violent attack” near the corner of Oak Street and Porter Avenue at about 1:40 a.m.

Two victims, a man and a woman, were taken to hospital.

The man later died while the woman is expected to recover.

“All indications are that all the people involved were known to each other and that this was a targeted attack as a result of a disagreement,” RCMP said. Names of the victims have not been released. Prince has a criminal record, and in 2007 he was sentenced to three years in prison for manslaughter for the November 2002 death of his half-brother, Reginald Travis Prince, 20, in Fort St. James.

Reginald Prince suffered a single hammer blow to his head while sleeping.

Before the hammer attack, Prince had been ruminating for days over comments he believed he heard from the victim about his sexual conquests, including Chris’s girlfriend, court heard during the trial.

During sentencing, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Ian Meiklem quoted extensively from a report by a psychiatrist, who said Prince was at high risk to re-offend.

In February 2013, Prince was sentenced to one year probation with a suspended sentence for assault, from an April 2012 incident in Prince George.

This is the second bout of confirmed homicide within city limits this year.

Seaver Tye Miller, Aaron Ryan Moore, Joshua Steven West and Perry Andrew Charlie face two counts each of first-degree murder in the Jan. 25 deaths of Thomas Burt Reed, 51, of Burns Lake and David Laurin Franks, 46.

The victims and a lone survivor of what police have called a targeted shooting were found inside a vehicle off Foothills Boulevard near North Nechako Drive.