Manslaughter sentences upheld for pair in landlord's fatal beating

Labelling a two-against-one fatal assault a “group attack” was not an error in law, Alberta's top court ruled Thursday in upholding the manslaughter sentences a Calgary judge handed two men.

In a 2-1 written decision, the Alberta Court of Appeal said Justice Keith Yamauchi's use of the phrase “group attack” wasn't an indication he misinterpreted the nature of the crime.

“The appellants' main objection is the sentencing judge's use of the term `group attack' as an aggravating feature of these offences,” justices Frederica Schutz and Michelle Crighton said, in their majority opinion.

“However, the reasons provide no basis upon which to infer the sentencing judge either misinterpreted the nature of the `group attack' in this case, that is twoon-one, or placed this case within a category of offences or offenders of a dissimilar and elevated seriousness.”

But in a dissenting opinion, Justice Barb Veldhuis, in focusing on other grounds of appeal rejected by her fellow judges, said Yamauchi failed to give convicted killers James Beaver and Brian Lambert sufficient credit for the fact police breached their charter rights on arrest and the strict bail condition of house arrest each endured.

Veldhuis said a four-year term would be appropriate before deductions for those two factors, which would have reduced Beaver's sentence by almost two years and eight months, and Lambert's term by nearly a year.

Both men were convicted by Yamauchi of manslaughter in the Oct. 8, 2016, beating death of their live-in landlord, Sutton Bowers.

The two men assaulted Bowers after a verbal altercation inside their townhouse and then left him there, not breathing, after the attack.

The next morning they returned to the townhouse and called 911 to report Bowers had died.

Last month the Supreme Court granted the two men leave to appeal their convictions after defence lawyers Kelsey Sitar and Jennifer Ruttan filed arguments that Yamauchi erred in finding their confessions to police weren't the result of charter breaches.