Harsher sentence sought after ‘cold coverup’ of killing
Strangling his wife and then burying her corpse under cement in their basement should have landed a Calgary man more than a sevenyear sentence, a prosecutor said Tuesday.
Crown lawyer Sarah Clive told a three-member Alberta Court of Appeal panel the sentence handed Allan Shyback for manslaughter and committing an indignity to a body was inadequate.
Clive said Shyback’s total sentence for the two crimes should have been in the 12- to 15-year range.
A year ago, Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Rosemary Nation sentenced Shyback to five years for manslaughter in the death of Lisa Mitchell, and two years for entombing her body in a makeshift plastic casket.
But Clive said Nation should have taken Shyback’s post-offence conduct into account when determining the gravity of the killing.
“We must determine Mr. Shyback’s moral blameworthiness, taking into account all his actions,” the prosecutor said. “This was a sophisticated, cold, coverup.”
Shyback was convicted of manslaughter in connection with the October 2012 killing of Mitchell in the couple’s Ogden-area home.
Nation ruled he used excessive force to defend himself from Mitchell after he said she menaced him with a knife, and he choked her after he was able to make her drop it.
Clive said the act of strangulation alone elevated the crime of manslaughter to the highest category of such a crime, warranting a sentence far greater than five years.
She also said the indignity Shyback committed on the victim’s body justified more than a twoyear sentence.
Clive noted Shyback’s post-offence conduct wasn’t simply a momentary act of panic, but a coverup it took police two years to unwrap.
“It’s not just what he did to the body . . . but we should also consider what did he do to the family, what did he do to the children?” she said.
After killing Mitchell, 31, Shyback folded her body into a large plastic container and then entombed her in a cement block in their basement, while their two children wondered where their mother had gone.
Shyback also created false text messages and a voice-mail message for the victim’s mom to leave the impression the woman had left town, abandoning her children.
But defence lawyer Balfour Der said it wasn’t as if Shyback was leading a glamorous life while his wife’s corpse remained hidden in their basement.
He said the offender lived an almost “hermit-like” existence, doting on his children. The appeal judges reserved their decision.