Over 1,900 people have joined an online Facebook group petitioning to charge Sam Eves's killer Ander Walker-Huria with murder before his April 28 sentencing. Eves was 16 when he was stabbed to death in Valleycliffe during a March 2007 house party.
Walker-Huria, 19, was on probation and wanted in Ontario as a suspect in violent crimes at the time of the incident. He was tracked down after a massive manhunt and was initially charged with second degree murder, but had his charges reduced to manslaughter based on the defence's argument Eves could have "impaled himself on the knife" used to kill him.
"It [the Facebook group] is a way that people can express their outrage and opinions about the whole system of how the justice system works," said Eves's father Colin Eves.
A policy stating that time spent in pre-sentencing custody counts as double the time served, the reduced charges means Walker-Huria could be released shortly after sentencing. The Facebook group creator, Jared Witt, is appealing to the public get involved before it's too late, according to the Eves family.
"How can the crown attorneys live with themselves by agreeing to this bargain that will free a cold-blooded killer?" he asks. "The failure of our justice system for Sam is something that has happened before, and that will happen to many more people unless some changes are made."
The group also includes a plea from the Eves family to sign and send a form letter to federal Attorney General and Minister of Justice Robert Nicholson demanding that the government introduce harsher punishments for pattern violent offenders.
"In a meeting we had with Crown January 9, we were told that the killer, in the words of Crown counsel, has 'psychological problems, substance abuse issues' and is 'likely to re-offend,'" states the letter, which is signed by Eves's parents Colin and Sandra, and siblings Buzz and Nigel. "I feel that Crown is repeating the same act of negligence and apathy that led to Sam's killer being at large that night in March of 2007."
Specifically, the letter asks Nicholson to do away with crediting double time for the amount of pre-trial custody, stop treating manslaughter cases as if they were committed unintentionally, call for a review of sentencing for crimes of violence by an organization not entirely made up by members of the legal profession.
"As part of the social contract, the Crown has an obligation to vigorously and diligently condemn acts of violence," states the letter. "Failure to live up to that obligation will simply accelerate the erosion of public respect for law and order."
The entire letter is available on the Facebook group: Petition To Charge Sam Eves Killer with Murder; Fix Justice System, or link to http://tinyurl.com/ddhc9u.
