Son confronts father’s killer in courtroom
13 years on, a bitter truth: ‘You’ll never fully be forgiven’
When little Parker was lying in a hospital bed with leukemia, his father was not at his side.
When Parker beat his cancer and graduated from high school, his father was not at his side.
So when Parker, now 21, stepped up to the witness stand Wednesday and faced down his father’s killer, he brought with him a photograph of his dad — to have him at his side.
It has been 13 years since Richard Bennett helped murder Jean Paul Page in a senseless, botched drug rip that left seven-year-old Parker without his father.
“Richard Bennett, let me introduce myself,” Parker said, looking across the courtroom at the killer in the prisoner’s box. “I’m the son of Jean Paul Page.”
Jean Paul — or Jay as most everyone called him — was bound and held at gunpoint for 90 minutes before being strangled and stabbed on the kitchen floor of his Hamilton apartment by a group of men who planned to rob him of marijuana. He was 29. The home invasion was engineered by Bennett, who worked with Page at a Burlington factory. But in the end, Bennett and his gang found no marijuana. Jay’s murder was over nothing. The case went cold for years until an elaborate sting operation had Bennett driving a car for a guy he thought was a rich businessman. It led to him confessing his part in the murder to an undercover cop. He also sold cocaine to an undercover officer.
He was initially arrested in December 2013 for first-degree murder and trafficking cocaine. Earlier this summer, he pleaded guilty to manslaughter and trafficking.
Bennett’s drug dealer friend, Shaka Reid, who was also in on the drug rip has since died and was never charged in Jay’s murder. None of the other men involved have been charged either.
Wednesday, Justice Harrison Arrell accepted a joint submission from counsel and sentenced Bennett to 10 years less time served. That means he has another four years and nine months to go.
“The pain and fright for Mr. Page over that hour and a half must have been horrendous,” the judge said.
Parker is a tree of a man, wearing size 15 Converse. Jay was sixfoot-seven and fought hard to stay alive the night Bennett betrayed their friendship.
Parker’s voice was strong as his family wept in the body of the court. Also present were the original Hamilton police homicide detectives who first worked the case and upon retirement had to pass it, unsolved, to the investigators who would eventually arrest Bennett.
“You have caused damage to this family that can never be undone,” said Parker. “And for that, you will never fully be forgiven.”
Bennett is 41 now with three children of his own and two others he has helped raise. Letters written on his behalf describe him as a good father. Court heard he intends to use his prison time to get his high school diploma with the dream of moving back to Jamaica, where he is from, and starting a business there.
His lawyer reminded the court that Bennett told the undercover cop he had been upset after the homicide to learn Jay had a son.
Bennett seemed to meet Parker’s gaze. Later, after returning from a brief break, it was clear Bennett had been crying.
And when the judge asked if he had anything to say, Bennett rose in the box and took a moment to compose himself before beginning to speak, his unshackled hands clasped behind his back.
As far as such courtroom speeches go from convicted killers, his was quite eloquent, as though he had given it much thought.
“Your honour, 13 years ago, I made a life-changing decision that changed my life but also destroyed another family in the process,” he began.
”I’m extremely apologetic to the Page family for their loss. I know they have ill feelings toward me, and the public may look at me with disdain, but I am not a bad person.”
Bennett said he has “had this guilt for years.” (Not enough, however, to turn himself in during those years the case grew cold.)
“I apologize to the public, I apologize to the court, but more important, I apologize to the family.”
Justice Arrell said he accepts Bennett’s “remorse and his genuine apology.”
He does, but the Page family never will.