Killer sentenced
HALIFAX — The killing of Angela Hall during a 2011 drug deal that went bad was “impulsive, cowardly and cold-blooded,” a Halifax judge said Wednesday in sentencing Christian Enang Clyke for second-degree murder.
“Carrying a loaded gun while under the influence of drugs can reasonably be expected to lead to very bad and possibly disastrous consequences,” Justice Peter Rosinski said in Nova Scotia Supreme Court.
“It is unclear why Mr. Clyke had armed himself with a loaded handgun at the time of the intended drug purchase. However, I am satisfied that there is no reason to believe that Ms. Hall was in any way a threat to Mr. Clyke and his accomplice.”
Clyke, 27, of Halifax, was found guilty by the judge last month after his lawyer and prosecutors agreed on a set of facts surrounding the April 2011 homicide.
The conviction carries an automatic penalty of life in prison.
On Wednesday, Rosinski accepted a joint recommendation from lawyers and decided Clyke must serve 12 years of his life sentence before he is eligible to apply for parole.
Clyke was behind bars at the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility in Dartmouth on other matters when he contacted police Nov. 29, 2016, to say he wanted to confess to something he had done five years earlier.
When police went to the jail later that day, Clyke confessed to Hall’s murder, saying he felt bad about what happened.
According to the agreed statement of facts, Clyke and another person went to Hall’s apartment on Primrose Street in Dartmouth on the evening of April 29, 2011, to obtain marijuana from her. Clyke was carrying a Colt 32-20 Winchester revolver.
Clyke, who was 19 at the time, and his friend were inside Hall’s apartment waiting for the pot to arrive when she had a change of heart and rushed them outside her apartment into the hallway.
A struggle ensued. After Hall was stabbed and fell to the floor, Clyke shot her in the back with the handgun.
Police discovered Hall on the floor in the fetal position. She had cuts on her face, blood on her hands and face and a hole in her back.