‘Ultimate bully’ gets life for savage killing
Victim moved to escape the attacks
Calling him the “ultimate bully,” a judge on Thursday sentenced a Burnaby man who fatally stabbed his former neighbour to life in prison with no parole eligibility for 25 years.
Late Wednesday, following more than two days of deliberations, a B.C. Supreme Court jury found Lance Standberg guilty of the August 2012 firstdegree murder of Ronald March, 58.
In imposing the mandatory sentence on Standberg, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Jim Williams said that the evidence to support the conviction was “abundant” and the crime committed quite striking it its cold-bloodedness.
“It’s hard to conceive of an act so callous, done for so little apparent reason,” said the judge. “I find you, Mr. Standberg, were the ultimate bully.”
The judge added that March was a member of the community who had done nothing to deserve the savage attack by the accused.
In a victim impact statement filed in court, March’s sister Linda Bierbrier said that her brother was her only living relative and that he was well read, very intelligent and a kind and gentle man who always went out of his way to help others.
In his writings, March wrote about his goals to better himself both intellectually and physically and never gave up, said Bierbrier, who lives in Florida.
“Now, due to the hand of another, we will not have any opportunity to share experiences and spend time together. My brother was brutally stabbed to death. He literally suffered to his last breath and now is gone and is never coming back.”
March’s sister concluded: “I hope that justice can be served by a sentence that is commensurate with such a heinous crime.”
Standberg, who declined an opportunity to address the court, had little reaction to the sentence.
Court heard that Standberg was angry when March had had a falling out with a woman who lived with Standberg in the same Burnaby apartment.
He assaulted the murder victim twice in the month before the slaying, the second attack splitting his ear in two and hospitalizing him.
Fearing for his life, March moved to a new apartment on Renfrew Street in Vancouver, but Standberg followed him there, taking a video of the moving van.
He was arrested several hours after the slaying after he tried to elude police and a police cruiser rammed his vehicle. DNA from the victim’s blood was found by police in the vehicle.
Standberg took the stand and denied that he had any part in the fatal attack but the jury disbelieved his story.
March was stabbed 12 times, one of the wounds a lengthy incision across his neck, severing the artery and his airway. He bled to death outside the Renfrew apartment.
The conviction came after Standberg’s second trial. The jury didn’t hear the reason why his first trial went off the rails in January. He had fired his lawyer part way through the trial.
On Thursday, John Turner, his second lawyer, wanted to make submissions that might give Standberg enhanced credit for his pre-sentence custody and reduce his parole eligibility period, but the killer brushed off Turner’s efforts, telling the judge that he wanted to be sentenced immediately.