WATCH: The man charged with the death of Julie Paskall entered a guilty plea in a Surrey courtroom today. Rumina Daya reports.
VANCOUVER – The man accused of killing Surrey hockey mom Julie Paskall has been given a sentence of 12 years in jail.
Twenty-eight-year-old Yosef Gopaul appeared in a Surrey courthouse Friday morning. He was charged with second-degree murder but pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter.
With 18 months credit for time served, Gopaul will spend 10.5 years behind bars.
He also pleaded guilty to robbery in the case of another woman attacked weeks before Paskall.
He attacked the 53-year-old mother of three outside the Newton Recreation Centre in December, 2013. Paskall died two days later.
According to evidence given in court, Paskall was struck once in the head with a rock. She fell forward and that is when Gopaul rummaged through her purse and took off.
The blow to head fractured Paskall’s skull. Her brain was badly injured from oxygen deprivation due to her heart stopping.
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Defence says Paskall did suffer from heart disease and died as a result of GoPaul’s actions. They say a healthy person would likely have survived the attack.
Gopaul was arrested after an undercover sting and told the undercover officer he fled the scene of the recreation centre with Paskall’s purse and took the cash. He then threw her purse away and cashed her lottery tickets at a convenience store.
In court on Friday, Paskall’s family read victim impact statements about how their lives have changed since her death. Her husband Al’s statement brought the courtroom to tears. During her daughter Rhiannon’s statement, Gopaul started crying.
Gopaul has a criminal record from Ontario, where he did time for aggravated sexual assault. Crown says he has a serious criminal record with 29 criminal convictions dating back to when he was 16-years-old.
Defence says Gopaul has had a difficult life. He was only seven-years-old when his mother was raped in her Ottawa apartment by three men. She survived but defence says it affected the young boy deeply. He became withdrawn, agitated and angry. He was put on medication for ADHD and dropped out of school. He apologized to the Paskall family on Friday while he stood in the prisoner’s box.
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