Saretzky sentencing goes today
Parole eligibility for triple murderer biggest question
The sentencing fate of convicted triple murderer Derek Saretzky could be known today in a Lethbridge courtroom. Adjourned from June 29 at the request of the defence, a sentencing hearing is anticipated to resume at 9 a.m. this morning.
Saretzky, 24, was found guilty on June 28 in the 2015 murders of 69-year-old Coleman resident Hanne Meketech, Blairmore resident Terry Blanchette, and Terry’s daughter, two-year-old Hailey Dunbar Blanchette. He will serve a mandatory life sentence.
With multiple murder cases in Canada, however, a judge may decide the period of parole ineligibility runs either consecutively (one after the other) or concurrently (at the same time).
The Crown has stated they are seeking consecutive parole ineligibility due to a unanimous jury recommendation.
The Crown has stated they are seeking consecutive parole ineligibility due to a unanimous jury recommendation. The Crown is also seeking a five-year concurrent sentence for the indignity to a human body conviction.
Court documents submitted on July 14 by Saretzky’s defence lawyer Patrick Edgerton show that he will seek a concurrent sentence.
“The defence’s position is that the 25-year periods of parole ineligibility for Counts 1, 2, and 4 should run concurrently to one another,” he writes in the submission. “In addition, the sentence for Count 3 should run concurrent. Therefor, the total parole ineligibility period should be 25 years.”
If the judge decides on consecutive sentences, Saretzky will serve 75 years before becoming eligible for parole. In making that request in court in June, prosecutor Michael Fox said a number of factors need to be considered.
“Mr. Saretzky concocted, created and devised a plan to execute three people,” he said. “(Was it) God, or the Devil? The Crown suggests that it was neither.”
Fox says the actions displayed moral culpability of the highest level, and “a level of callousness and disregard for human life.”
The vulnerability of the victims — a woman living alone, a man in bed sleeping, and a two-year-old baby — as well as the “brutal nature” of the murders must also be considered in sentencing, Fox said.
Edgerton says a sentence must be proportionate to both the gravity of the offence and the degree of responsibility of the offender.
“The defence conceded that the gravity of the offence is very high,” he said in his submission.
“There has been evidence adduced that Mr. Saretzky had achieved only a Grade 10 education, that he struggled finding and maintaining employment, and that he struggled with substance use in the years leading up to the murders. However, the defence concedes that despite this, the degree of responsibility is still at the high end.”
If Saretzky’s parole ineligibility periods all run concurrently, he would be eligible for parole at age 49. If his parole ineligibility periods all run consecutively, he would not be eligible for parole until age 99.
The defence says, if the consecutive option happens, “there is no possibility of one day being eligible for a parole hearing and no incentive to be a model inmate of follow the rules of the institution.” With files from J.W. Schnarr Follow @NKuhlHerald on Twitter