Alberta Court of Appeal upholds man's sentence in stabbing death
Murder accomplice sought reduction in seven-year manslaughter jail term
The seven-year sentence handed an accomplice in the murder of a Calgary chef was justified, Alberta's top court ruled Tuesday.
In a unanimous decision, a three-member Alberta Court of Appeal panel upheld the term Tommie Holloway was given for manslaughter for his role in the killing of Christophe Herblin.
“We see no reason to overturn the decision,” Justice Peter Martin said, in rejecting defence counsel Kim Ross's bid for a lesser punishment for Holloway and agreeing with Crown prosecutor Elisa Frank the sentence should stand.
Ross argued Court of King's Bench Justice Blair Nixon erred in finding Holloway would have known there was a serious risk of bodily harm to Herblin when he drew him out of his under-construction restaurant where his accomplice, Anthony Dodgson fatally stabbed him.
He also said Nixon didn't give sufficient weight to Holloway's Indigenous background, and overemphasized aggravating factors while underemphasizing mitigating ones.
“A sentence of three to five years would have satisfied all the principles of sentencing,” Ross said.
But Justice Alice Woolley said Nixon's finding that Holloway would have foreseen the possibility of serious injury to Herblin, which put him in a higher category of manslaughter, was a sound one.
Ross argued Holloway would not have known whether Dodgson would be met with resistance from Herblin and resort to stabbing him, or whether the threat the accomplice posed would be enough for the chef to leave the area.
Woolley said the stabbing of Herblin was a “predictable outcome” and Nixon didn't have to find there was a certainty of bodily harm, simply a risk.
Holloway was convicted by a Calgary jury of a reduced charge of manslaughter for his role in the March 14, 2020, fatal stabbing of Herblin outside a strip mall in the city's southwest.
He had faced the same second-degree murder charge for which jurors ultimately found Dodgson guilty.
The two men had broken into Herblin's Croque Saveurs bistro, which was under construction, to gain access to an adjacent cannabis store. When the alarm went off they fled, and Herblin, after calling police, came to the scene.
After officers left, the victim remained on scene and when Holloway and Dodgson returned three hours later, and realized Herblin was still there, the former vandalized the victim's parked car, luring him outside where he was fatally stabbed.
Dodgson, who was handed a life sentence without parole for a minimum 12 years, has appealed both his conviction and the sentence.