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.
- Court hears how deadly attack on Tori Dunn happened as murder trial begins
- Kingston Police officer charged with impaired driving while off duty
- Rideshare driver charged for alleged sexual assault of passenger in Winnipeg
- Toronto police officer faces impaired driving charge after found asleep behind wheel
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.
Comments
Comments closed.
Due to the sensitive and/or legal subject matter of some of the content on globalnews.ca, we reserve the ability to disable comments from time to time.
Please see our Commenting Policy for more.