WARNING: This story contains graphic content. Discretion is advised.
A man who admitted to slitting his girlfriend’s throat and, days later, stabbing to death his mother and stepfather has been sentenced to life in prison with no chance for parole for 35 years.
The sentence, which was what the Crown had asked for, was handed down by Justice Glen Poelman on Thursday. Duthie will be 62 years old by the time he’s eligible for parole.
Dustin Duthie, 27, pleaded guilty last month to second-degree murder in the 2018 deaths of Taylor Toller and Shawn Boshuck, and to first-degree murder in the death of Alan Pennylegion.
The crimes carry an automatic life sentence, and Poelman agreed with a Crown recommendation to increase the minimum 25-year parole ineligibility period due to the level of violence.
Poelman said he believes Duthie has shown genuine remorse and he entered a guilty plea, but that isn’t enough to lessen his sentence.
Court heard Duthie first killed his girlfriend, left her body in her apartment, and five days later murdered his mother and stepfather.
He apologized during the sentencing hearing to the families of the victims, saying what he did was inexcusable.
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Duthie’s lawyer has argued his client should serve 25 years before he can apply for parole.
“He is a volatile and angry young man. He selected his victims,” prosecutor Shane Parker previously told the sentencing hearing.
“These were different sets of murders. Taylor’s was for blood lust, curiosity.”
An agreed statement of facts said Toller, Duthie’s girlfriend of five years, was last seen on video footage from outside her condo unit about 4 a.m. on July 26, 2018. Duthie was captured on the video leaving the condo alone about an hour later.
Police found Toller, 24, five days later with her throat slit and “tucked into her bed as if she was asleep.”
On the same day she was discovered, Duthie stabbed Boshuck, his mother, six times in their home and covered her with a plastic sheet, the statement said.
It said Pennylegion witnessed Duthie cleaning his mother’s blood in the kitchen and Duthie attacked his stepfather, stabbing him eight times.
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