THUNDER BAY -- Shaldon Wabason has been sentenced to 10 years for the March 2011 killing of a 54-year-old man.
Wabason was convicted of manslaughter and break and enter to commit robbery by a jury in October after being tried for second-degree murder in the death of Robert Topping.
The 24-year-old will serve an additional three years and five months after being given credit for pre-sentence custody, ruled Justice Terrance Platana at the Thunder Bay Courthouse on Thursday. Wabason was also sentenced to seven years on the break and enter charge, which be served concurrently.
Platana accepted a request from defence lawyer Delmar Doucette that the pre-sentence custody time of more than four years spent by Wabason be given one-and-a-half days credit for every one day served.
Doucette, who had requested a six-year term less credit for time served, was not happy his client will be spending more time behind bars.
“We firmly believe with his background as a First Nations person and the hard life he’s had up until now that he should have gotten a sentence of time served, and that he’s already done his time,” Doucette said.
“We’re very disappointed that he’s going to have to do another three years and a bit.”
Doucette did not answer on whether he will appeal the case, instead just saying he will continue to advise Wabason.
Wabason also received a lifetime ban on possessing prohibited weapons and an order to submit DNA.
Shortly after midnight on March 19, 2011 Topping came to the aid of his friend, Paulette Cloutier, who was house sitting a Minnesota Street home for her son.
Cloutier heard voices outside the home and was concerned the house was about to be broken into and contacted Topping.
A group of men then kicked in the back door and tackled her to the floor with a knife held to her throat. One watched over her while the others searched the house for drugs and valuables.
Topping then arrived and was stabbed four times in the back during an altercation in the bedroom, with three of those wounds going through to his chest. He died from blood loss as a result of those stab wounds.
During the trial Wabason admitted he kicked down the door himself but testified he stayed outside only as a lookout. He told the court he urged the others to get out and left the house prior to Topping's arrival.
Doucette argued there was no evidence establishing Wabason as the stabber, a stance Platana told the court he accepted and also acknowledged there was no evidence Wabason was either a leader or follower in the operation.
However, Platana said the nature of the home invasion and subsequent stabbing of Topping was so violent the sentence needed to be at the more severe end of the range.
Wabason was one of four people charged in the case, along with Nicholas Webber, Christopher Hawk and Cody Thompson.
Webber pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Hawk pleaded guilty to robbery and was sentenced to two years less one day and probation for three years. Thompson died in August 2011 a week after being rushed to hospital from the district jail, where he was being held in custody.
Wabason briefly addressed the court before the sentence was imposed.
“I’d like to say to the victim’s family I’m really sorry somebody passed away during this incident,” he said.
Crown prosecutors Rob Kozak and Andrew Sadler declined to comment on the decision.
