Nunavut court: convicted Igloolik killer can’t get parole for 16 years

Saying the facts of the case were closer to first-degree murder, Justice Neil Sharkey has ruled that Peter Angutimarik, found guilty of second-degree murder in February, will not be eligible for parole for 16 years. (FILE PHOTO)

An Igloolik man convicted of second-degree murder will be prohibited from applying for parole until after16 years into his life sentence, Justice Neil Sharkey ruled March 7 at the Nunavut Court of Justice in Iqaluit.

That decision follows Sharkey’s ruling last month that Peter Angutimarik killed his roommate Esa Angutiqjuaq in 2009 by inflicting a single stab wound to Angutiqjuaq’s throat.

A conviction of second-degree murder carries an automatic life sentence in prison.

But in coming to his decision to bar Angutimarik from applying for parole for 16 years, Sharkey said the killing was closer to first-degree murder — an intentional and planned killing — than manslaughter, which is an accidental but unlawful killing.

The “paramount principles,” in Angutimarik’s sentence are of denouncing the killing and deterring others from similar vicious acts, the judge said.

After reading his decision March 7, Sharkey turned to five members of the victim’s family who were sitting in the courtroom and said the court was powerless to end their grief.

“I don’t expect the end of this trial to bring you closure, because, frankly, I don’t know what that word means,” the judge said.

In finding Angutimarik guilty of second-degree murder, Sharkey found the accused’s testimony at trial not credible, believing instead a confession Angutimarik made to police which was recorded in 2009, shortly after the killing, and Angutimarik’s arrest.

Sharkey ruled that Angutimarik killed Angutiqjuaq in a fit of jealousy. He did so by severing arteries in the deceased’s throat with a seven-inch knife: Angutimarik thought Angutiqjuaq was stealing his best friend and was not contributing enough to household expenses.

“It is obvious from the nature of the wound that the person who slit Esa’s throat wanted Esa to die,” Sharkey said in his February ruling.

In his March 7 parole judgment, Sharkey said he learned of Angutiqjuaq’s strong character through the victim impact statements, which the deceased’s family read earlier the same day.

“Esa was a sharing person, a helping person,” the judge said, and regularly shared country food with others in Igloolik.

“He accomplished far more than many other men his age in Nunavut,” Sharkey said.

The victim impact statements showed a family devastated by the murderous act committed by Angutimarik, who, Sharkey said, harboured a “pathetic and sick hatred in his head.”

But the judge said he also saw resiliency in the Angutiqjuaq family.

A relative of Angutiqjuaq spoke of how she hoped her sons would reach out to grief counsellors, and not let vengeance and hatred for Angutimarik take root in their hearts, Sharkey said.

Sharkey noted that Angutimarik had a troubled childhood during which he was “not just neglected in the extreme, but physically beaten.”

“But Peter Angutimarik’s prospect of rehabilitation must take a back seat to the objective of denunciation and deterrence,” the judge said.

In addition to ruling Angutimarik ineligible for parole for the first 16 years of his life sentence, Sharkey also imposed a 10-year firearms prohibition on the convicted man upon his release.

After Sharkey closed court March 7, members of the Angutiqjuaq family cried softly and hugged each other in the court room.