A man who pleaded guilty to manslaughter was given another year in jail for moving the body of the man he killed.
Robert Arams, 76, was sentenced in October to six years in prison after pleading guilty to killing Claude Landry. However, he had yet to be sentenced for causing an indignity to the body.
On Dec. 13 at the Court of Queen’s Bench in Moose Jaw, he was handed an additional one-year sentence after pleading guilty to moving Landry’s body twice.
This gives him a total sentence of seven years in prison.
Defence lawyer Barry Nychuk wanted the one-year sentence to be served concurrently, citing Arams age and health issues, like diabetes.
However, Crown prosecutor Rob Parker argued the crime was heinous and the sentence needed to stand alone.
Arams shot Landry during a drug-deal in July 2017. The Gravelbourg Sask., resident who is a retired farmer, sold crack to the community so that his friends could have a clean source of drugs, court heard.
During the night of his death, Landry showed up to Arams’s farm with a few friends which angered him. Arams, who suspected Landry of stealing from him, pointed a long-barrel gun at him and asked him to leave.
When Landry went to push the barrel away the gun went off and killed him.
Nychuck told the court Arams didn’t remember pulling the trigger and believed it to be a faulty gun.
Arams buried the body on his farm with the help of David and Shauna Prentice who were at his farm during the killing. However, when they left, Arams couldn’t stop thinking about the body, so he used a loader to move Landry’s body for a second time, the court heard.
When the body was eventually discovered on Aram’s farm by police it was badly decomposed as it was sitting in 30-degree weather for days.
Landry’s widow, Marie Moldovan, said she was satisfied with the additional sentence, but is saddened her husband wasn’t afforded the opportunity to receive medical help after being shot by Arams.
“Mr. Arams claimed the incident to be an accident, and claimed to be reacting to the situation in the heat of the moment. But in the heat of the moment, he did not take Claude’s well-being into consideration.”
She said Arams could have made attempts to preserve Claude’s life or called an ambulance.
“Claude wasn’t even given the chance. No attempts to save him or consider him were made,” Moldovan said.
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