Ferguson gets eight years for stabbing girlfriend to death
‘I don’t expect forgiveness, because I’ll never forgive myself,’ killer says
Convicted killer Scott Ferguson told court Tuesday he can’t forgive himself for fatally stabbing his girlfriend.
“I just want to say sorry from the depth of my heart,” Ferguson said, following Crown and defence sentencing submissions.
“I don’t expect forgiveness, because I’ll never forgive myself,” he said, before Justice Glen Poelman handed him an eight-year sentence, minus credit of four years for pre-trial custody. “I hope some day that people affected by this can find some degree of peace.”
Ferguson, 26, was convicted in March of manslaughter in the Sept. 14, 2014 killing of his thengirlfriend, Susan Rae Elko.
Ferguson stabbed Elko, 38, 10 times after she menaced him with a knife while they argued in their Mission-area apartment.
He wrestled the weapon away from her before repeatedly stabbing her in the neck.
Defence counsel Eleanor Funk suggested a six- to eight-year sentence would be appropriate, minus credit for the time Ferguson spent in custody.
Funk noted Ferguson was remorseful from the outset, confessing to his boss immediately after the killing before calling 911 and waiting for police to come get him.
He also gave a lengthy confession to a homicide investigator, she told Poelman.
Funk said Ferguson was willing to plead guilty to manslaughter, but the Crown proceeded to prosecute him on a charge of seconddegree murder.
She added there was no level of planning in his attack on Elko.
“Mr. Ferguson was not thinking at the time,” Funk said.
“This was more in the range of a reflexive or impulsive act,” she said.
Funk compared Ferguson’s crime to the actions of convicted killer Nicholas Rasberry, sentenced to seven years for stabbing his neighbour Craig Kelloway 37 times with three different knives.
Crown prosecutor Tara Wells argued for a sentence of 15 years.
“The Crown submits that this is a near murder,” Wells told Poelman. “Stabbing someone multiple times in the neck ... is a gruesome, violent crime.”
Poelman also heard victim-impact statements from Elko’s family, read in by Wells.
“We are all so devastated,” wrote her mother, Della Elko. “It’s awful, awful without her. Susie so loved her family, as we so loved her.”
Her father, Mark Elko, said they “lost a wonderful, so full of life, darling girl. “Our hearts are so broken.” Added her sister, Tammy Soderberg: “We miss and love her so, so much.”