Two lovers in Saskatchewan will spend the next three years in prison after being found guilty of conspiring to murder their respective spouses.
Curtis Vey, 53, and Angela Nicholson, 52, were sentenced on Friday after a jury found them guilty in June.
READ MORE: Jury convicts Saskatchewan couple of conspiring to murder their spouses
Martel Popescul, chief justice of the Court of Queen’s Bench, handed down the sentence Friday afternoon after listening to arguments that morning.
He reviewed an iPad recording made by Brigitte Vey of a conversation between Angela Nicholson and Curtis Vey when they outlined a plan for a house fire and doctored coffee that would kill their respective spouses.
Popescul also outlined the appropriate sentencing range, stating a conditional sentence is not appropriate for murder conspiracy.
“It’s a serious offence, no question about it,” said Vey’s lawyer Aaron Fox.
“But at the same time, as noted by the judge, there’s a real question of whether anything would’ve ever happened. In other words, would the conspiracy actually ever gone ahead,” Fox added.
There is no minimum sentence for conspiring to commit murder, but the maximum penalty is life in prison.
READ MORE: Conspiring to kill: When murder becomes more than just a thought
The Crown had been seeking prison terms of six years, saying the appropriate sentence for one intended victim is three-and-a-half to seven years.
“We reviewed a number of cases with similar facts about families where it’s a domestic situation where it’s a spouses planning to kill another spouse,” said Crown lawyer Lori O’Connor.
Vey’s lawyer had argued for a 16-month sentence while Nicholson’s lawyer had argued for a six-month sentence followed by probation, each stating their clients weren’t serious about killing their spouses.
Brigitte Vey read a victim impact statement saying it still scares her to think she was sleeping next to someone who was planning such things.
READ MORE: Sask. court hears of alleged murder plot thwarted by wife’s mistrust
She went on to say that “she couldn’t sleep for months” and that in counseling, she learned she wasn’t responsible for Curtis Vey’s actions.
Brigitte and Curtis are parents to NHL player Linden Vey, currently with the Calgary Flames.
Defence lawyers for the co-accused didn’t explicitly state whether they plan to seek an appeal.
Both Angela Nicholson and Curtis Vey apologized for their actions.
“Why good people do bad things is a mystery we will never know,” Popescul said.
Ryan Kessler contributed to this story