The man who committed a 2018 Canada Day killing in Kelowna broke down in tears repeatedly before being sentenced to nearly two more years in prison on Thursday, acknowledging the damage that his violence wrought on not only his victim but also those who loved him.
“There is nothing on this planet that can justify my actions and the pain I brought to a family I don’t even know,” Noah Vaten said, while his victim Esa Carriere’s parents listened in the gallery.
Vaten said he continually thinks of Carriere’s family, and about Carriere himself.
“I think about the things he liked, the foods he liked, his favourite colour. I question a lot about him and he did not deserve to die,” Vatan said.
“Nobody deserved to lose their life and no family, not a single family in this world, deserves the pain I brought upon his family … I’m not opposed to going to jail or any of that. I think whatever makes (Carriere’s) family have an easier time through this is what I deserve.”
He said he’s going to try and make up for his crimes by simply being the best version of himself every day.
Earlier in Vaten’s sentencing hearing, Carriere’s mother and father both gave victim impact statements, explaining the hole ripped in their lives the day they learned their son died.
They addressed Vaten directly, urging him to atone for his deadly actions.
“When I gave birth to Esa, I had so much hope and dreams for him and now they have been all taken away,” Nazneen Carriere, Esa’s mother, said.
“On the day Esa was leaving home, I pleaded with him to stay. Then when he arrived, he sent me a message saying he was ‘safe and sound in B.C.’ with a big heart.”
- 2 teens charged with murder in case of 16-year-old killed outside Halifax mall
- Green Party deputy leader given jail sentence for Fairy Creek old growth protests
- Cars torched, explosions heard in suspected arson in Montreal neighbourhood
- Gas station clerk stabbed several times during violent attack at Ultramar in Montreal
This, she said, made her so happy. But, she asked, “how wrong was he?”
“The most challenging part is knowing he probably would be here today if I didn’t let him leave,” she said.
She said she misses him in a way words can’t describe.
As a mother, she said, she talked about how to prepare for her death, but it was unnatural to think of losing her own son and she struggles with it regularly, finding comfort in God and the belief she will one day see her son again.
Then she addressed Vaten.
“I ask you Noah, I see you for the first time, are you sorry?”
Vaten said, “I am. I am.”
“If you are, ask God for forgiveness, he is the most merciful, he can forgive … I pray to God to give you any guidance you may need and I pray that you will discover who you are because that is not the person on Canada Day. That person on Canada Day, isn’t you.”
These statements affected BC Supreme Court Justice Alison Beames, and she reflected on that in her sentencing.
“I must say that I have never heard nor read victim impact statements so filled with grace, and delivered with such compassion and generous will,” she said.
“It is an understatement to say that Esa Carriere was clearly loved and lost far too soon. And will be lost will be missed forever.”
Beames sentenced Vaten to four years and three months in prison for chasing down Carriere after a disagreement and fatally stabbing him as fireworks went off for the city’s annual celebration.
With time and a half granted for time already in custody, he will have to serve another one year and 11 months in prison. Potential sentences for manslaughter can range from a suspended sentence to life in prison.
Vaten pleaded guilty to manslaughter partway through his murder trial, and had no previous criminal record before, at 20 years old, killing Carriere. His upbringing was damaging, Beames told the court and while he doesn’t have a formal education, loved learning though he never found the support needed to keep going. But the details of the case, she said, are severe.
Beames expressed empathy toward Vaten, noting that she believed he would make good on his promise to live a better life with the Carriere family in mind but the crime itself was far from an accident.
“Stabbing Mr. Carriere was completely out of proportion to whatever trivial argument or conflict immediately preceded the chasing of Mr. Carriere,” Beames said.
“Mr. Carrier could not, on any reading of the evidence before me, have provoked the degree of the infliction of harm on himself. He was unarmed. He was vulnerable as he lay on the ground. And he repeatedly tried to apologize for whatever he had said or done before he started running,” Beames said.
Beames also said the fact Vaten cleaned off the knife was an aggravating factor.
Following his release, Vaten will be on probation for a period of three years.
Comments