Life sentences overturned for 2 people found guilty of murdering Surrey, B.C., mechanic

The killers of Surrey, B.C., mechanic Delphin Paul Prestbakmo have had their life sentences overturned.

Prestbakmo, known as Pauly, was stabbed over 40 times in the parking lot near Semiahmoo Shopping Centre on Aug. 16, 2019.

Two male youths — aged 15 and 16 at the time — were sentenced as adults, found guilty of second-degree murder and handed life sentences.

But in a ruling from the B.C. Court of Appeal released last Friday, those sentences were reduced to seven years in prison — the maximum allowed under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

Justice Harvey Groberman said the ruling comes after a precedent-setting Supreme Court of Canada judgment, which set a higher bar for courts when they attempt to give youth adult sentences due to the seriousness of their crimes.

“I have no doubt that the brutality and senselessness of the crime in this case will cause some members of the public to view the overturning of the sentences as an injustice,” Groberman wrote.

“This is, however, a court of law, bound to adhere to the dictates of statutes and the interpretations of them by a higher court.”

Groberman wrote that the two youth found guilty of killing Prestbakmo will receive credit for time served in custody since their original sentence was pronounced in 2022.

Their identities are protected under a court-ordered publication ban.

Youth sentences

In Canada, youth criminals are normally tried under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, which generally sees lighter sentences, with the understanding that youth are not mature enough to understand the gravity of their offences.

However, Crown prosecutors can seek adult sentences if they convince a judge that the seriousness of the crime meant that the youth was aware of the consequences of their actions.

Last July, Canada’s top court ruled that prosecutors hadn’t proven beyond a reasonable doubt that a youth had the maturity of an adult at the time of a killing in Ontario.

A majority of the court agreed that the Crown should disprove that a youth has “diminished moral blameworthiness” before seeking an adult sentence.

The B.C. Court of Appeal said that test wasn’t applied to Prestbakmo’s killers.

Groberman said there was nothing to indicate that the killers of the beloved Surrey mechanic — whom he wrote appeared to have no connection to Prestbakmo — displayed “unusual maturity” at the time.

“The evidence is incapable of showing beyond a reasonable doubt that the [killers] had passed the stage where their actions were influenced, to a large degree, by immaturity,” the justice wrote.

‘Simply a random act’

Groberman wrote that there was no apparent motive behind the youths’ stabbing of the mechanic, and that a lower court judge was “left with the possibility that it was simply a random act of extreme violence.”

Prestbakmo was beloved in the South Surrey community, and he lived very close to the parking lot at 152 Street, near Semiahmoo Shopping Centre, where he was killed.

He was found just after 3 a.m. PT on the morning of Aug. 16, 2019.

Despite the parking lot being across the street from a police detachment, his injuries were so severe that he died before police got to the scene.