A Red Deer man with nearly 90 prior criminal convictions was sentenced to six years in prison for stabbing a man to death in February 2016.
Shane Dion McPhee, 42, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in Red Deer Court of Queen’s Bench on Monday morning on the first day of a scheduled three-week trial.
McPhee was originally charged with second-degree murder for stabbing William “Blaine” Baker in the neck as he sat in a vehicle with several others outside McPhee’s home on Freemont Close in Red Deer around 9:30 p.m. on Feb. 13, 2016.
Crown prosecutor Bruce Ritter said that in the unprovoked attack Baker, 47, was stabbed once in the neck as he sat in the front passenger seat.
One witness said, McPhee said “Baker, I got something for you,” before stabbing him with a knife or other sharp object, leaving a 6.5-centimetre deep cut that reached his left lung.
As blood spurted from his fatal wound, he was driven to Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre.
He was left there and the vehicle with several others inside drove off. Baker died shortly after in hospital.
McPhee was arrested three days later and has been in custody since.
Ritter and defence lawyer Kevin Sproule recommended a six-year sentence in a joint submission, which was accepted by Justice Debra Yungwirth.
The judge called six years a “fit and fair sentence” and told McPhee that she hoped he used his time in prison to reflect on the pain he had caused his victim’s family.
“I hope you will not go back to the way you lived before this crime and you will come out a better man,” she told McPhee, a married father of two with a history of alcohol and drug problems.
Yungwirth said she hoped the Baker family’s obvious faith would help them find peace.
McPhee was given credit for 1,140 days in custody based on 1.5 days for each day served, leaving him with 1,050 days left to serve. He is prohibited from possessing weapons for life.
He has an extensive criminal record with 70 adult convictions and 18 as a youth. Six convictions involved violence or threats of violence.
Outside court, a family member said they were not happy with the sentence.
Many of Baker’s family members had come to court and nine victim impact statements were read.
One of Baker’s daughters, Stacey Baker, read her statement from Newfoundland, which was heard on the court’s speaker phone.
In an emotional address, she described her father as the life of the party with “a smile that could light up a whole room.”
She said she could not find the words to describe her loss.
“I’ll never get to share his larger-than-life personality with my future husband and kids.”
Crown prosecutor Brittany Ashmore read a statement from Baker’s other daughter, Chelsea, who was also in Newfoundland, where the family is from.
She described the pain of not being able to see the father again, who left Newfoundland in 2013 to find work in Alberta.
“It actually hurts to miss him as much as I do,” she says.
Baker’s brother Troy flew to Florida to tell their parents that Blaine had died.
“It was the hardest thing I ever had to do,” he says in his statement.
“The pain is deeper than I can describe. I’m devastated and will be for life.”
Mary Baker, Blaine’s mother, said she was “unable to put into words the emotional rollercoaster I have been on.”
Blaine had struggled with addiction demons but the family had never given up hope. Among the papers they found after his death was acceptance into a rehabilitation program that would have meant another chance.
“That chance was taken by this man, Shane McPhee,” she read in court.
Mary said she does not know how her son’s death will affect the family over time.
“But I do know we’ll never be the same.”
pcowley@reddeeradvocate.com
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