Craig Pope sentenced for murder
Pope will serve 11 years of his life sentence before he’s eligible for parole
On opposite sides of the gallery in Courtroom No. 4 in Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court Thursday, two mothers sobbed. One of them cried for the son she won’t see outside prison walls for more than a decade; the other cried for the son she would do anything to see again anywhere, even for just one minute.
“Mr. Pope, please stand,” Justice Glen Noel said from the bench at the front of the room to Craig Pope in the prisoner dock. “You have been sentenced to imprisonment for life without eligibility of parole until you have served 11 years of your sentence.”
Pope, 38, earned an automatic life sentence in December when a jury found him guilty of second-degree murder for the death of 36-year-old Jonathan Collins. The amount of time he must spend in prison before he’s eligible for parole, however, is determined by the court, with a minimum of 10 years and a maximum of 25.
Crown and defence lawyers presented their submissions on Pope’s parole eligibility early in February: prosecutors Shawn Patten and Kathleen O’reilly argued for a 12year period, while defence lawyers Mark Gruchy and Kathy Moulton argued for the 10-year minimum. The jury that convicted Pope also had a chance to make their suggestions, with six jurors abstaining and the other six suggesting 15 years.
In the end, Noel set Pope’s parole eligibility at 11 years, balancing what he described as aggravating and mitigating factors in the case. On one side, the judge said, Pope has a supportive family. He has participated in programming in prison and has a real chance to rehabilitate. He murdered Collins in an “emotionally-driven event,” and had done it with a single stab wound. Pope had expressed a remorse the judge accepted as genuine.
On the other side, the judge continued, Pope was the aggressor in the fight with Collins, and had been on probation at the time. He has an extensive criminal record. After stabbing Collins in the street, Pope had callously gotten into a taxi and told the driver to run Collins over.
“As if jabbing a knife into his abdomen was not enough to end the altercation, Mr. Pope fled the scene without concern,” Noel said.
“The sentence must send a message to Mr. Pope and others of like mind and similar circumstances. Extreme violence is not acceptable as a response to what was, in this case, no more than a dispute over a few dollars and a fistfight.”
This was the second time Pope was convicted of Collins’ murder. He was found guilty in 2019 and sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 12 years before he appealed the conviction and won a new trial.
Noel spent about an hour reviewing the facts of the case before delivering his decision. Through witnesses at trial, the court heard Pope and Collins had spent most of Sept. 7, 2017 together in a cab, making more than a dozen stops around St. John’s before ending up on Alderberry Lane to meet with Pope’s father for the sale of a TV. After Craig Pope Sr. handed $60 to Collins, a fight broke out.
Neighbours and passersby described seeing Pope and Collins in an altercation on the street, with Collins using his backpack as a shield and throwing a cellphone at Pope “in desperation.” He collapsed on Mundy Pond Road and was rushed to hospital, where he succumbed to a stab wound.
Police arrested Pope hours later in a doctor’s office off Elizabeth Avenue.
Noel addressed Collins’ family directly during the sentencing, referring to the emotional victim impact statements his mother and sisters had presented. Collins was a dad of two, including a young child with special needs, they had explained. He was tall and handsome, smart and athletic, friendly and kind and loved.
“You each showed such courage in reading your heart-wrenching statements,” the judge told the women. “I heard in your voices and saw on your faces the horrendous grief and suffering you are enduring as a family. Any sentence I impose on parole eligibility can never erase the horror of what Craig Pope has done. I hope you find some comfort in the court’s recognition of your loss and the closure of this criminal case.”
After court, the prosecutors raised the potential of an appeal for a longer period of parole ineligibility for Pope.
“At this point we’re just going to look at the file, see if there are any errors of law, and if there is an error in law, whether we feel it’s something we should appeal,” Patten told reporters.
“(The Collins family) has been dealing with this and we’re happy for them that they can try to get some closure now and that’s the key for us. We really just want them to be able to move on, and for myself and my colleague, it’s just on to the next file and to do the best work we can do.”