Life in prison with no chance of parole for 20 years. That’s the sentence 24-year-old Austin Vielle has been handed after brutally killing three friends in a drunken attack.
“I’m relieved,” Laurie English-Winters said after the sentence was handed out on Tuesday. English-Winters is the mother of two of Vielle’s victims: 24-year-old Clarissa English and 18-year-old Dakota English.
“He got exactly what we were hoping — the best-case scenario,” she added. “He did get life in prison for all three murders.”
Clarissa and Dakota, along with Clarissa’s 27-year-0ld boyfriend Kyle Devine, were stabbed to death at their Lethbridge home in April 2015.
Vielle pleaded guilty to three counts of second-degree murder on Monday, almost three years after the killings.
“I feel a lot of anger — I just, I don’t know what to do about it,” said Clarissa’s father, Vince Many Grey Horses.
Vielle’s lawyer, Tonii Roulston, told the court her client knows he can never drink again and that he suffered abuse as a child. She said he’s already started rehabilitation.
“He’s in an AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) program… already working diligently within the remand centre, which is is very challenging to do,” Roulston said.
She added her client is remorseful for killing his friends.
“Although he may not have shown it and he may have been a bit stoic, he was very emotional. I saw tears in his eyes.”
Crown prosecutor Vaughan Hartigan called the killings a “frenzy of violence.” He added an aggravating factor in the sentencing was leaving unanswered questions.
“The first question of people is, ‘Why?’ And I’m afraid we are just going to be left without an answer to that question, as will probably Mr. Vielle himself.”
Hartigan also reiterated some of Justice Rodney Jerke’s comments during the sentencing.
“This was a difficult, brutal and tragic case and… crimes of such horrendous violence diminish us all.”
Jerke also said the public should take some satisfaction in the diligent work done by officers.
“There was an excellent investigation preformed by the Lethbridge Police Service that very quickly solved the case and the accused was represented by outstanding counsel.”
Some family members of the victims said they think one day they will want to talk to Vielle and plan to work towards forgiveness, but not while their pain is still so raw.
“I can’t accept that right at the moment,” English-Winters said. “It feels a little good knowing that there was remorse, but I didn’t see it.”
Roulston asked the judge to request Vielle serve out his sentence in a federal penitentiary in Grande Cache, Alta., citing ” safety precautions” for her client. The judge agreed and made the request.
Vielle will be eligible for parole when he is 41.