Man convicted in random beating death of Karim Meskine sentenced as youth to 7 years

A now 20-year-old man who was convicted in the random beating death of Karim Meskine in 2013 has been sentenced as a youth and will serve seven years as a youth offender.

He will serve four of those in jail and will be released on probation for the final three years. He cannot be named because he was a youth at the time of the offence.

The sentence was an order under the Intensive Rehabilitative Custody and Supervision (IRCS) program, meaning the suspect is eligible for up to $100,000 a year in funding for counselling, schooling and other rehabilitation programming. The money is available for the entire seven year sentence, including four years in jail three years in the community. IRCS is an intensive rehabilitation program only available to youth in provincial custody and is not commonly used in B.C. and is only used in extreme cases where the suspect has a chance to rehabilitate and reintegrate into society.

Supreme Court Justice Bowden said to the suspect in court he is urging him to take advantage of all programming and counselling available to him during his sentence.

“It’s up to you to do this with the hope of successfully reintegrating into society,” said Bowden. “You have to behave in a way that avoids being transferred to a federal institution and if so, the programming ends.”

Bowden also stated the federal system programming falls short of provincial resources and there was no evidence an adult sentence was going to be a better option for the suspect.

He has been in custody since his arrest in December, 2013, but his time served will not count towards his sentence as it would if he would have been sentenced as an adult.

Meskine’s mother told Global News she is “disgusted” by the sentence today. She was not in court today for the sentencing.

The suspect was found guilty of second-degree murder in 2016.

The Crown was pushing for him to be sentenced as an adult but during a hearing in May, the judge asked for certain documents, leading those in court to believe he would hand down a youth sentence.

Meskine was discovered lying on the ground by a passerby on Dec. 17, 2013, near the 22nd Street SkyTrain station in New Westminster. He was beaten so severely that before he passed away, the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team had already been called in to investigate.

When Meskine was attacked, he was going for a job interview to help support his family. He died one day after his 19th birthday.

The judge has previously found the suspect was “mildly intoxicated” at the time of the incident and that he “intended the natural consequence of his actions” when he beat Meskine in the head with a baseball bat.