Zachary Armitage has been sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years in the high-profile 2019 killing of Metchosin, B.C.’s Martin Payne.
He pleaded guilty to first-degree murder halfway through his trial, alongside co-accused James Lee Busch.
Busch was sentenced to the same amount of time in mid-December 2022.
Life imprisonment is the mandatory minimum for first- and second-degree murder in Canada.
Payne was murdered in his home on July 8, 2019, one day after Busch and Armitage escaped the minimum-security William Head Institution, about eight kilometres from Payne’s house. The pair skirted the oceanside facility’s fencing by walking along the shoreline at low tide, according to prosecutors.
At the time of their escape, Busch was serving an indeterminate sentence for second-degree murder and assault, while Armitage was serving a nearly 14-year sentence for robbery, aggravated assault and other offences.
More to come.
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