THUNDER BAY — The man who shot Adrian Richardson at a Hodder Avenue apartment in 2022 will spend another six-plus years in prison, a judge has ruled.
Justice Stephen Wojciechowski handed down his sentence Thursday afternoon in a virtual courtroom over Zoom.
The judge sentenced Ricketts to 11 years for manslaughter in Richardson’s death, after Ricketts pleaded guilty to the lesser charge several days into a second-degree murder trial that was scheduled to last three-weeks. Ricketts is the second person involved with the robbery to be sentenced, after Jacob Green.
Aiden Collander has also pleaded guilty and is scheduled to return to court in September.
Like Ricketts, they both pleaded guilty to manslaughter, although neither of them went to trial.
A fourth person who was charged in Richardson’s death, Henok Banjaw, is due back in court in July. The details of his case are subject to a publication ban.
All four were initially charged with first-degree murder.
In sentencing Ricketts, Wojciechowski gave him credit for four years and 219 days in custody — that left six years and 146 days left on his incarceration.
The Crown and defence both agreed on a sentence in the 10-to-12-year range, with the defence arguing for something closer to 10 and the Crown asking for 12.
In issuing his sentence, Wojciechowski said aggravating factors included that Ricketts was in the process of committing a robbery and had a gun, that he was robbing Richardson in his home where one expects to feel secure, that Ricketts didn’t do anything to offer help after the shooting and attempted to cover his tracks after the fact, showed “callousness” and “indifference” by, in part, going to a Shoppers store afterwards to get snacks, that he had a previous criminal record, and that Richardson’s death was senseless.
The judge said some of the factors working in Ricketts’ favour were that he didn’t go to Richardson’s apartment with the intent to kill him (details from an agreed statement of facts read by the judge stated that the shooting was “reflexive” and not done with intent to aim), that Ricketts pleaded guilty and admitted to pulling the trigger during a trial “the Crown concedes was not going well."
Wojciechowski also said that Ricketts is now 25 years old, meaning there’s time for him to be rehabilitated while in prison and, once released, will be going back to a supportive family, and that he believed Ricketts’ remorse for the killing was genuine.
In addition to the sentence, Ricketts also received a lifetime weapons ban. He was not required to submit a DNA sample, as his is already on file from a previous conviction, court heard.