EDMONTON – A man who held nine people hostage at gunpoint in a Workers’ Compensation Board office building was sentenced Tuesday to almost 11 years in prison.
But the judge gave Patrick Clayton four years of credit for time he spent in pretrial custody.
Queen’s Bench Justice Sterling Sanderman also ruled Clayton will have to serve at least half of his remaining sentence of six years and 10 months before he is eligible for parole.
Sanderman cited Clayton’s “reckless and patently dangerous conduct” that understandably caused fear in his victims.
Clayton, who was armed with a hunting rifle and 100 rounds of ammunition, herded nine people into a conference room in the downtown Edmonton building on Oct. 21, 2009.
The self-confessed cocaine addict had a long-standing beef over a claim for a knee injury he had received on a construction site seven years earlier.
He slowly released the hostages before surrendering peacefully to police 10 hours later.
Clayton, 40, pleaded guilty to hostage-taking, pointing a firearm and possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose.
Several of the people who were held hostage were present in court for the decision.
Sanderman said Clayton showed genuine concern for the welfare of the hostages and remorse for putting them through such a terrifying ordeal. He also offered an apology in court.
“I found your apology to the hostages to be genuine but you offered none to the WCB,” said Sanderman.
He added it was ironic that Clayton’s quarrel was with the compensation board, but he targeted innocent people.
Clayton still unrealistically blames the board for his problems, the judge said. “Your thinking is the same today as it was 25 months ago.”
Crown prosecutor Lisa Tchir had recommended Clayton serve an additional 10 years in prison. Defence lawyer Arnold Piragoff said counselling would benefit his client more than a long incarceration. He suggested two more years in jail followed by three years probation.
Clayton cried throughout the lengthy sentencing hearing and testified on his own behalf. He apologized to the hostages, but also railed against the compensation board, describing himself a “political prisoner of corporate bullying.”
He admitted to using cocaine over two days before marching through the front doors of the building with his grandfather’s gun. He shot over the head of a fleeing security guard, striking a wall, then forced the hostages into a conference room on the eighth floor.
Others in the building crawled on their stomachs towards back doors, escaped down stairwells or hid in cubicles.
Clayton told his captives he wasn’t going to hurt anyone but jabbed one man in the stomach with the muzzle of his gun.
Many of the hostages said they thought they were going to die because Clayton appeared unpredictable. At times he flung his gun as he ranted about the system and at other times sobbed as he talked about his young son.
He quickly released one worker with high blood pressure who was having trouble breathing. He told the others to tie themselves up but didn’t care when they got loose. He allowed some to go to the bathroom on their own but didn’t mind when they failed to come back.
Clayton told the hostages it was “his last stand” and he didn’t expect to leave the building alive. Two hostages offered to walk with him out of the room so he could surrender, but he declined.
He gave the last remaining hostage, Randy Morrow, a bullet as a souvenir.
Moments later, Clayton did turn himself over to police. When he opened the conference room door, he was upset that a police negotiator broke a promise to have a TV reporter waiting for him on the other side. Instead, tactical officers arrested him.
Morrow was the only hostage who wasn’t a WCB employee. Like Clayton, he was also a claimant who was injured on the job.
Morrow said outside court he sympathized with Clayton’s fight, because he had his own frustrations with the system. But he said Clayton needs to take responsibility for the crime.
Other hostages wrote letters to the court describing how they have been depressed and fearful of going to work. One employee said he worries Clayton will someday try to carry out another “insane plan.”
In 2006, Clayton threatened to throw himself off a bridge because of his troubles. After police talked him down, he told a hospital worker he simply wanted media attention to escalate his claim and expected to get a big pile of cash.
His claim is not yet resolved.
The agency has since upgraded its security at a cost of $6.6 million. It added new security desks, an emergency lockdown system at the downtown building and a bulletproof doorway to the lobby of its health centre.
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