A man who admitted his part in a deadly Vancouver home invasion, where the assailants dressed as police, will spend four more years behind bars.
A B.C. Supreme Court judge sentenced Sandy Parisian to seven years in prison. But with credit for time served, he has four years, three months and 19 days remaining.
Parisian pleaded guilty to manslaughter last year in the Jan. 31, 2021 death of 78-year-old Usha Singh at her home near Queen Elizabeth Park.
“The sanctuary and security were utterly shattered for Usha Singh, a frail, elderly woman who lived alone,” Justice Kathleen Ker said in her reasons for sentencing.
Security video released by the court shows two men — seen wearing jackets bearing the word “police” — ringing Usha’s doorbell before entering the home.
Footage submitted by Crown prosecutors also shows the pair rummaging through her living room.
The sentencing ruling details how the men arrived just before 6 a.m., and once inside the house began “methodically searching” the living room and other areas.
It wasn’t until after 10 a.m. that a neighbour noticed the view from a security camera he installed in Singh’s living room had been altered. He called police for a welfare check, and officers arrived shortly after 11 a.m., according to the ruling.
Singh was found unconscious and “severely beaten … and left lying on the bathroom floor,” with a zip tie around one of her wrists,” according to the ruling.
She later died in hospital.
In handing down the sentence, Ker found that Parisian participated in the crime by ransacking the home’s main floor and was an “equal participant” in the decision to enter the home and steal from it.
While there were no victim impact statements presented to the court, Ker said she had “no doubt the community at large is shaken by this offence.”
Ker noted that Parisian has Indigenous heritage and was the subject of a tragic upbringing, including neglect, abuse and mistreatment from birth.
She noted his crystal meth and cocaine addiction and that Parisian, who has 160 prior convictions, had previously described himself as a career criminal.
She also noted that he had reconnected with his Cree heritage while in custody, and accepted his expression of remorse as sincere.
However, she also pointed to the premeditated nature of the break-in, including the deceptive presentation as police officers, which she called “particularly disturbing and insidious.”
Ker said that while Parisian was not actively involved in beating Singh, there was no suggestion Parisian tried to help her either.
“You knew there was a risk of violence,” she said, adding the attack targeted a vulnerable woman in a place where she was supposed to feel safe. Singh’s final moments were likely terrifying, she said.
Prosecutors sought an eight-year sentence while Parisian’s defence argued for five years.
Parisian has apologized to the court, and his lawyer said his guilty plea showed remorse.
A second man accused in the death, Pascal Bouthillette, is slated to stand trial on a charge of first-degree murder in May.
Comments