A man accused of killing 34-year-old Jordan Moore in Calgary was sentenced to nine years in prison on Monday.
Jermaine Bailey, now 32, was charged with first-degree murder in Jordan’s death. He pleaded guilty to manslaughter on Monday.
Jordan was killed in January 2019, when he was shot in a back alley in Kensington.
Jermaine’s brother, Xavier Bailey, was also charged with a first-degree murder, which was dropped to accessory after the fact.
According to an agreed statement of facts, Jordan was upset that Jermaine was selling drugs to his friend, Nancy Seidler, who — at the time — Jordan believed was at risk of losing her child to children’s services.
When Jordan found out that Seidler had purchased the drugs, he smashed the window of Jermaine’s vehicle.
In the agreed statement of facts, Jermaine said that he met up with Jordan shortly after Jordan smashed his window to discuss repayment in the back alley behind Seidler’s.
An argument ensued that resulted in Jordan swinging a stick and Jermaine firing several gunshots while trying to flee the area.
Jordan died from a single gunshot wound.
Jordan’s mother, Margaret, offered Jermaine forgiveness when she read her victim impact statement in court on Monday.
She said she was comforted by the fact that her son died trying to help someone and that she believed Jermaine had shown remorse.
“Two years ago, we were in court, and I looked at Jermaine, and I thought, in these two years, something… humbled Jermaine. I felt like he was a different kind of person,” Jordan’s mother explained.
“We want that he would become a person that does good and brings life and not the opposite.”
Jason Moore read a victim impact statement in court and criticized the prosecution for making a plea deal in the death of his brother.
Outside of court on Monday, Jason said that he felt blindsided to learn that the prosecution was planning to enter into a plea deal.
“We’ve been anticipating and planning for this trial for over a year since they went direct indictment,” Jason said. “And two weeks before, radical change… very blindsided, very painful.”
Prosecutor Michael Ewenson said he sympathized with Jason but maintained that he would never promise that the Crown would always have a strong case.
“Things can change, and as we delve deeper into the evidence, we have to constantly ethically reassess our test for prosecution,” Ewenson said. “Our heart certainly goes out to them but we don’t prosecute on emotion. We have to prosecute on the evidence.”
Defence lawyer David Chow said that the joint submission was carefully crafted and the prosecution had no direct evidence as to what happened in the back alley on Jan. 22, 2019.
Ewenson told Justice Kim Nixon that Jordan acted out of loving concern for his friend and he believed that manslaughter was the correct plea.
Nixon accepted the joint submission from the prosecution and defence of nine years’ imprisonment.