Judge calls student’s killer a ‘bullying thug’
Tyrone Chambers gets life sentence, cannot seek parole for 18 years
Tyrone Chambers, one of two men found guilty in the shooting death of Brandon Musgrave at a student party in 2010, has been sentenced to life imprisonment with no chance for parole for 18 years.
Prosecutors had requested a “no parole” eligibility in the 15- to 18-year range. Chambers’ lawyer asked for a 10- to 13-year range.
Chambers, 31 — convicted of second-degree murder for a second time in January — was sentenced on Wednesday. His coaccused Joshua Warner, 29, is to be sentenced on Friday on a manslaughter conviction.
Before sentencing, Brandon’s mother Janet Musgrave shared the anguish of losing her son with the court once more, after having endured almost eight years of court proceedings and now two trials.
For the longest time, “I did not know how to grieve the loss of a child. It is against nature,” she said amid tears in her victim impact statement. “I have felt sadness, emptiness, anger, numbness and devastation. I don’t think there are any words that can explain the anguish and agony of my grief and pain.”
Her son was 18 when he was shot and killed as an innocent bystander at a Dundurn Street South student house party on March 12, 2010. Chambers and Warner had brought guns concealed in socks and fired them when Chambers did not like the music that was playing.
Musgrave, whom trial witnesses described as a peacemaker, had tried to calm the dispute by telling a partygoer that Chambers’ challenge to step outside, “it’s not worth it.”
Chambers and Warner were convicted of second-degree murder in 2013 and handed life sentences. Chambers was to serve 17 years before applying for parole, and Warner, 15. An appeals court, however, ordered a new trial because of errors in the judge’s jury instruction. In the new trial, a jury found Warner guilty of the lesser offence of manslaughter. Both men were also found guilty of aggravated assault. Two other students were shot at the party, but survived. In sentencing Chambers, Justice Toni Skarica said none of the students posed any threat to him, but that Chambers showed “little regard to the safety of others” by bringing a loaded gun to the party.
Skarica said Chambers was a “bullying and aggressive thug who looked for trouble” that night and took “a stupid dispute over music” out on the innocent and defenceless partygoers. Chambers, he said, has given the Musgraves a form of life imprisonment “that no family in Canada should have to endure.”
Musgrave’s sister Kessia told the court, “I lost my chance to have my brother at my wedding this past summer. No chances to hug, kiss, celebrate, drink, or share the best day of my life with him.” She spoke of her family’s pain, and of the party witnesses who at trial broke down on the stand, and how she watched them fall on their knees and cry in her parents’ arms.