A man who stabbed his dating-app date to death in Tofino nearly five years ago wept as he apologized to the victim’s family in court.
“To know it was me who did that to you, I do feel badly,” said Luke Priddle, who in April was found guilty by a jury of the second-degree murder of 47-year-old Mathew Phillips, as well as robbery and theft of a motor vehicle.
Priddle, 27, appeared in B.C. Supreme Court in Nanaimo last week for lawyers to make arguments on how many years he should serve of his life sentence before becoming eligible to apply for parole.
Second-degree murder carries an automatic life sentence with a minimum of 10 years served before an offender can become eligible to apply for parole.
Crown prosecutors called for a 15-year period of parole ineligibility for the attack on Phillips in his own home, while Priddle’s defence team suggested the minimum 10 years would be appropriate, because Priddle has addressed his cocaine addiction and spent the last 4 1/2 years sober and out of trouble.
Priddle and Phillips connected through a dating app on Dec. 28, 2020, and arranged to meet for sex in Phillips’ Chesterman Beach Road apartment.
The two consumed cocaine, and Phillips pressed Priddle for money owed for the drugs before Priddle attacked him, inflicting 75 “sharp edge wounds,” including 67 stab wounds, Crown prosecutor Lindsay Pearce said. Nearly all of the stab wounds were to the head and neck, and many entered and injured Phillips’ skull.
A stab wound that severed Phillips’ carotid artery would have led to massive blood loss and death within minutes, Pearce said.
After killing Phillips, Priddle washed his hands and went to the kitchen to consume more cocaine.
He searched Phillips’ body for his car keys and stole his cash, cocaine and vehicle, Pearce said. He drove around in Phillips’ car, and “essentially returned to life as normal,” texting friends, partying and searching surf reports and beach webcams, she said. He lied to his friends about where he got the vehicle, drugs and his injuries.
He used an encrypted app to communicate with one friend, who advised him to destroy evidence of the murder.
“That’s exactly what he did,” Pearce said.
Priddle returned to Phillips’ apartment just over 24 hours after the murder, turned all four burners on the stove on high and put flammable material on the stovetop, she said. Although he denied his intention was to start a fire, Pearce said the purpose was clearly to start a fire to conceal evidence.
When an officer entered the apartment on Dec. 30, there was evidence there had been a fire, she said. The entire apartment was covered in a layer of soot, and it was extremely hot, with a strong smell of human decay, Pearce said.
The floor was covered in blood, and Priddle’s bloody footprints marked his movement around the apartment, she said.
Priddle has a large support network, made evident by many character reference letters submitted on his behalf, Pearce said, although many of the letters seem to lack an understanding of the gravity of the murder and imply an unfairness of the guilty verdict, rather than acceptance of Priddle’s role.
A common theme of the letters is that the killing was out of character for Priddle, Pearce said.
“Respectfully, the Crown will submit that the commission of a murder by brutally stabbing an unarmed man 75 times should be out of character,” she said.
Defence lawyer Dale Marshall pushed back on that idea, arguing that the murder was not just out of character for Priddle before the offence, but in the 4 1/2 years since he killed Phillips. During that time, he enrolled in treatment for a “serious cocaine addiction” and maintained his sobriety, was employed full-time, proactively updated police on his change of phone numbers and addresses and abided by strict bail conditions, he said.
Phillips’ sister, Michelle Phillips, recalled receiving a call from her mother on Jan. 1, 2021, expecting it to be happy New Year’s wishes. Instead, her mother told Michelle her brother had been killed. She sank to the floor in disbelief.
Her brother was a loved and active member of the Tofino community, a great uncle and brother, she said in her victim impact statement.
“I can still picture him dancing around our living room floor in his dress-up clothes or imitating one of his favourite comedians,” she said.
Phillips’ mother, whose statement was read to the court, said her son loved the environment, wildlife and his friends and family. She had to wait more than four years to learn how her son died through the trial, and the reality of his death was far worse than she could ever have imagined, she said.
“I can’t get the image out of my mind — my son lying in a pool of blood,” she said.
Priddle is expected to be sentenced on Sept. 22.
