‘Burn in hell’
Family of Steven Miller emotional as St. John’s judge sentences killers Calvin Kenny and Chesley Lucas to nine years and six months in jail
Steven Miller’s grandfather had some choice words for Calvin Kenny as he left a St. John’s courtroom Friday morning.
“Burn in hell,” he told Kenny, leaning in to get closer as sheriff’s officers escorted the convicted killer out in handcuffs. Kenny did not reply.
Kenny, 24, and Lucas, 26, were sentenced to nine years and six months in jail each for their roles in the robbery, kidnapping and stabbing death of 25-year-old Steven Miller, as well as the arson of Miller’s Conception Bay South home.
Members of Miller’s family filled the back row of the provincial courtroom and many of them became emotional as Judge Colin Flynn was bringing down his sentence. A number of them sobbed as Flynn described Miller’s injuries as noted in an autopsy report.
Flynn said the charges the men were facing were of the “highest level of seriousness” and spoke of the tragedy of Miller’s death. He also noted both Kenny and Lucas are young parents with “long lives ahead of them” and the possibility to be rehabilitated. Lucas has already taken steps in that regard, he said.
The total sentence for the charges was just less than 23 years, but Flynn chose to rule some of them be served concurrently, since the jail term would be “crushing” otherwise.
In addition to the jail time, he ordered both men to provide a DNA sample and banned them from firearms — Lucas for 10 years and Kenny for life.
Lucas will be given two years and two months credit for the time he has already served in custody. Kenny is serving time for unrelated crimes.
Defence lawyers Bob Buckingham and Robert Hoskins (for Lucas) and Randy Piercey and Jon Noonan (for Kenny) had worked with Crown prosecutors Tannis King and Richard Deveau to come up with a suggested seven-and-a-half year sentence for the men, but Flynn rejected it twice, saying he felt aspects of it were too low and could affect the public’s faith in the justice system.
Lucas’s lawyers had recently indicated they would apply to withdraw his guilty plea, but last Monday asked the judge to proceed to sentencing instead. He and Kenny had originally been charged with murder, but pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter.
A group of masked, armed men entered Miller’s home in the middle of the night in July 2016, robbing him and setting his home alight before kidnapping him. His body was found in a residential driveway in Kelligrews about four hours later. He had been stabbed to death.
The evidence in the case and Flynn’s reasons for the sentence are banned from publication, since Paul Connolly, who was charged along with Kenny and Lucas, has a trial date set for November.
Connolly has yet to enter pleas on charges of murder, robbery, forcible confinement and arson, and his lawyers have said they were waiting to see the outcome of Kenny and Lucas’s sentencing.
A fourth man, Kyle Morgan, pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact to manslaughter, and was sentenced last August to a year in prison.