Convicted murderer Gary Donald Johnston will spend 15 years in prison before he can apply for parole.
Justice Robert Crawford sentenced the 52-year-old man to the mandatory life sentence and set his wait to be eligible to apply for parole at 17 years - which works out to 15 because he's already spent two years in prison - after finding him guilty of second-degree murder in the stabbing of New Westminster trucker Vic Fraser, 42, on March 10, 1998.
The Crown asked for the parole application eligibility to be set between 17 and 21 years while the defence sought 10 to 15 years. Johnston was sentenced Thursday, in B.C. Supreme Court in New Westminster.
Johnston stabbed Fraser nine times, breaking off knife blades in his neck before bludgeoning him with a flowerpot, booting him in the ribs and making off with his wallet. Fraser had interrupted Johnston while he was burglarizing the little yellow bungalow in Bridgeview that Fraser's sister Jeanie owned. He died of massive blood loss.
"The impact on family and friends has been immense," Crawford noted. He wondered why Johnston resorted to killing the witness in cold blood when he was caught ransacking the house.
"Why not just bare-face the situation and walk out?"
Crawford noted the killing was "remorseless, brutal, sustained and violent." Fraser likely lived for about 10 minutes before he bled out.
"It is unimaginable to know one's life blood is swamping one's internal organs over several minutes," Crawford added.
Jeanie Fraser wept when she heard this. Crawford asked Johnston if he had anything to say.
"No, your honour," he replied.
Johnston was sentenced in a high-security courtroom specially designed for the upcoming Surrey Six murder trial.
Outside court, Jeanie Fraser sobbed.
"I hope I can heal," she cried. It was finally the last court hearing in her nearly 13-year quest to see her brother's killer brought to justice.
"It's over, but it's never over," she said. "I'm still numb. I think I've got a long way to go.
"I don't want any more families to get victimized by him."
Jeanie Fraser used to play crib with Gary Johnston, drive him to the beer store, and lend him videos, coffee and smokes. She even had him over on Christmas Day, 1997, never suspecting he would someday victimize her family.
After killing Vic Fraser, Johnston made his way to Regina where, eight-and-a-half months later, he stabbed caretaker Wayne Griffith multiple times in the neck, wrapped his body in plastic and dumped it in a desolate field.
Originally charged with second-degree murder in that case, Johnston pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to 10 years, plus time served. He did seven.
Undercover RCMP officers posing as an organized crime gang approached Johnston when he was on parole and roughly 60 scenarios were enacted in Ontario and Quebec, over six months, to win his trust. During their last scenario Johnston told the undercover cops that he'd stabbed Fraser about 30 times in the throat, and also offered to carry out killings for the bogus crime syndicate. He was arrested immediately after that.
The killer's life-long criminal record began at age 18 and since then he's been convicted, sometimes on multiple occasions, of burglary, assault causing bodily harm and extortion, besides the Saskatchewan manslaughter conviction and this murder conviction.
Crown prosecutor Lothar Kiner told reporters outside the courthouse that the RCMP "did a fabulous job" in collaring Johnston. He noted an appeal is possible but added there's been no hint this is going to happen here.
Kiner has prosecuted about 35 manslaughter and murder trials in his storied career. Sporting his silver watch for 35 years service, the veteran prosecutor noted this would likely be his last.
