Fatal crash leaves family stricken.
A man convicted of manslaughter for killing his roommate during a fight about their dirty kitchen was sentenced Friday to three years in prison after a judge concluded the victim was the aggressor.
William Tubrett, 48, was originally charged with seconddegree murder for the death of his friend and boss Jamie Vickers, but the jury convicted him on the lesser charge of manslaughter on Thursday after 10 hours of deliberation.
“Although the jury decided that Mr. Tubrett took Jamie’s life, they found he did not do so intentionally,” Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Sterling Sanderman said in his decision. “Clearly, Mr. Tubrett choked him for too long a time.”
Sanderman said Vickers was a man who “had an anger in his heart” in the early morning hours of Dec. 29, 2011, when he confronted Tubrett about the kitchen in the rented Mill Woods home they lived in.
In testimony, Tubrett admitted he threw a plate of gravy over the kitchen counter and walls in “a hissy fit” because a third roommate had eaten his share of supper.
Tubrett used “more force than necessary” during the fight, Sanderman concluded.
The sentence drew an astonished, brief outburst from Vickers’ sister, Tracey, in the front row of the gallery.
“What?” she said, then softly added, “sorry.”
“Can you please leave?” Sanderman said. “You’ve lost your right to stay in the courtroom.” “I wonder what the new year will bring.”
Twenty minutes later, one of her brothers called to tell her Jamie was dead.
“I miss my big brother so much,” she told court. “I’ll never get to see that big smile again or hear that loud chuckle. Christmas dinner will never be the same because that chair will be empty.”
After the phone call, Tracey Vickers drove to her parents
“Clearly, Mr. Tubrett choked him for too long a time.”
The grieving sister left the courtroom in tears and the rest of her family followed.
Tubrett, Vickers and the third roommate, Paul Gill, had moved from Newfoundland weeks before the killing to work together framing houses. Vickers, 35, ran the business and considered the other two his employees.
On Friday, Tracey Vickers told court she’d just returned to her Newfoundland home on New Year’s Day 2012 when she wrote on her Facebook page: home, though the RCMP were already there. Jamie’s father Gordon Guest answered the door and saw the officer.
“I could tell by the look on his face it wasn’t going to be good,” Guest said. “It’s been nothing but hell since that day.”
The night Vickers died, he and Tubrett had gone to a bar while Gill stayed home, drank beer and watched television. Tubrett returned home after Gill had fallen asleep, threw a tantrum and made a mess of the kitchen.
Tubrett testified he was later awakened by Vickers “pounding” on him in fury about the mess in the kitchen. In the dark, he was struck on the face, neck and head, he said.
“I was doing anything to save myself,” Tubrett said as he flailed his arms on the witness stand. Tubrett said the fight ended when he “scooted” out from beneath the other man. Tubrett claimed Vickers fell asleep during the struggle.
Gill contradicted that when he said he saw Tubrett choking Vickers before he dropped him to the floor. After Vickers fell, Gill and Tubrett fled to Fort McMurray in his truck.
Tubrett offered brief condolences to the Vickers family when given a chance to address the court. He then pointed to the courtroom ceiling.
“The only one who knows the truth of this is the almighty God,” Tubrett said.
On Thursday, the jury rejected Tubrett’s claim that he’d been the victim and needed to fight for his life.
“We didn’t think it was selfdefence,” the jury foreman told court.
After serving 15 months of pre-trial custody, Tubrett has 21 months left to serve.