Warren Welters daughters left B.C. Supreme Court in Kelowna satisfied their father’s killer was judged accordingly.
“We’re just happy that this is all over with and the jury came back with the verdict that they did,” Ashley Sargent said Tuesday afternoon.
Daniel Garth Ruff was found guilty of second-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 10 years.
But despite the verdict, Sargent and her sister are left with the stark reality that their 51-year-old father was taken from them suddenly and tragically.
Ruff used a hammer to deliver numerous blows to Welter’s head while he slept in his bed at 941 Bernard Avenue in June 2015.
The two fought often and Welters may have been trying to evict Ruff, his room-mate.
“Is there ever going to be justice in a situation like this?” Alyssa Wellwood questioned.
The sisters are thankful for the work of Crown Counsel in achieving a second-degree murder conviction.
“They presented a good case and the jury saw that.”
While Ruff turned to the women in the courtroom and said he was sorry before being sentenced, the two dismissed his gesture.
“It would have meant a lot more if he told the truth about what happened through this trial,” Wellwood said.
Wellwood believed Ruff’s self-defence story was entirely implausible.
“It was a joke. The evidence spoke for itself. What he was saying was a joke. It was an insult to us and to our father,” she told Global News.
When asked if she could go so far as to forgive her father’s killer for his actions, Wellwood was decisive.
“There is no forgiveness right now. Would you forgive somebody?”