One of three men convicted of a brutal 2015 home invasion robbery deserves at least 10 years in prison, a Crown prosecutor told a sentencing hearing on Monday.
But the lawyer for Jean Bertrand Havyarimana argued he deserves no more than eight years, partly because of the violent upbringing he suffered as a youngster during the civil war in his native Burundi in Africa.
“In that war 300,000 people died and two of those people killed in that uprising were his brothers,” said Corey Wilson, adding his client came to Canada in 2008 and became a Canadian citizen two years later.
“One can only imagine what kind of carnage Mr. Havyarimana saw in his lifetime, it greatly influenced the significant criminality.”
He said the man’s experience as a “war child” shouldn’t be used as an excuse but as a mitigating factor.
As he spoke, Havyarimana appeared pacing and stroking his hair on closed circuit TV from the Calgary Remand Centre.
Havyarimana, 22, Mangok (Mango) Deng and Lloyd (Banks) Kollie are convicted of 18 charges related to the April 7, 2015 home invasion at a house in Penbrooke Meadows.
Last July, the trial heard the three men were hired to commit the crime to scare the victims away from a career of dealing cocaine.
Crown prosecutor Marta Juzwiak noted Havyarimana has a lengthy criminal record and has rejected rehabilitation.
Full article: http://calgaryherald.com/news/crime/crown-seeks-10-year-sentence-for-violent-home-invasion-robbery/wcm/ae54cb4a-949d-4d9b-a242-32ed090fb312?utm_term=Autofeed&utm_campaign=Echobox&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#link_time=1522089406