Blake Schreiner will spend at least 17 years behind bars.
Schreiner was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for at least 17 years after being found guilty of second-degree murder in the death of his partner Tammy Brown.
Justice Ron Mills handed down his sentence Friday morning in a Saskatoon courtroom.
Crown prosecutor Melodi Kujawa said the sentencing speaks to changing attitudes around domestic violence in the court system.
“I’m hoping that this sends a strong message to the community that domestic violence will not be tolerated and will be dealt with very severely by the court,” she said.
In her almost 20-years’ experience, she said she’s seen an improvement in how the court handles domestic violence.
“We used to get a lot of conditional discharges after trials and now we’re getting more serious sentences and we’re getting sentences that try to deal with treating offenders,” she said.
The Crown had argued for 18 years, while Schreiner’s lawyer argued for 12 years.
Schreiner admitted to stabbing and killing Brown in the early hours of Jan. 29, 2019. She was stabbed approximately 80 times, an autopsy found.
Mills rejected the defence’s argument that Schreiner was not criminally responsible, but found Schreiner did not plan Brown’s death in his ruling on June 10.
Schreiner had pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder.
In finding Schreiner guilty, Mills said Schreiner had “not established on a balance of probability that he was suffering from a mental disorder at the time he killed Tammy Brown.”
During closing arguments, Kujawa argued that what appears to be a complex case can be summed up in simple terms: “This is simply another tragic domestic homicide in the context of a marital breakdown.”
Schreiner’s family insisted this was a case of mental health, not domestic violence, when speaking with reporters following the ruling.
“I feel that the justice and mental health system have let Blake down,” said his mother, Donna.
“No matter what the prosecutor says I know this was not domestic violence but a mental health issue. We are sorry this happened and wish we could have gotten Blake into mental health sooner, we may have avoided this tragedy.”
Taylor Chetty, with Saskatoon Police Victim Services, spoke with reporters on behalf of Brown’s family following the sentencing.
“They definitely feel that this is a domestic violence case,” she said. “They believe that possibly this case could hopefully influence outcomes for other couples and families.”
She added Brown’s family said they hope her story can help other women.
“You might think that you know somebody but sometimes you have to be extra careful,” she said. “There’s no amount of awareness, time or resources that can ever bring Tammy back for them.”
Defence lawyer Brad Mitchell argued that Schreiner should be found not criminally responsible because he had a mental illness at the time of the killing.
A second-degree murder conviction carries a mandatory life sentence with no chance of parole for at least 10 years.
— with files from Ryan Kessler