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.
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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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