Life sentences of Surrey mechanic\u2019s teen killers overturned<\/p>\n
Published 12:01 pm Monday, March 30, 2026<\/p>\n
Warning: this story contains graphic details that some readers may find disturbing.<\/p>\n
Teens who were sentenced as adults 3.5 years ago to life in custody for the \u201cbrutal and senseless\u201d killing of popular South Surrey mechanic Paul Prestbakmo in 2019 have had their penalty reverted to the maximum allowed under the Youth Criminal Justice Act \u2013 seven years, including four in custody.<\/p>\n
Following a brief hearing in the B.C. Court of Appeal in Vancouver Friday morning (March 27), Chief Justice Leonard Marchand, Justice Harvey Groberman and Madam Justice Lisa Warren agreed \u2013 based on a July 2025 Supreme Court of Canada ruling that overturned an adult sentence imposed on a youth who had been convicted of first-degree murder \u2013 that the trial judge had erred in imposing an adult sentence.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have no doubt that the brutality and senselessness of the crime in this case will cause some members of the public to view the overturning of the sentences as an injustice,\u201d Groberman said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is, however, a court of law, bound to adhere to the dictates of statutes and the interpretations of them by a higher court.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to a \u2018Case in Brief\u2019 posted to scc-csc.ca<\/a>, the Supreme Court of Canada \u2013 in Rex v. I.M. \u2013 ruled last summer that there must be proof beyond a reasonable doubt that a young person had the \u201cmaturity or capacity for moral judgment of an adult at the time of the offence\u201d in order to be sentenced as an adult, regardless of the severity of the crime.<\/p>\n The decision \u2013 supported by seven of nine judges \u2013 \u201crepresents an important reinterpretation of the law, as least as far as British Columbia is concerned, and substantially elevates the threshold for sentencing young persons as adults,\u201d Groberman said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Crown concedes that the judge\u2019s reasons do not satisfy the threshold that was later established in I.M.\u201d<\/p>\n Prestbakmo, 45, died in the early morning hours of Aug. 16, 2019, after he was stabbed 42 times over the course of 26 seconds, shortly after he had stepped out of his residence to take out some garbage and have a cigarette.<\/p>\n Surrey Provincial Court Judge Robert Hamilton found the teens \u2013 whose identities are shielded by the YCJA \u2013 found guilty of second-degree murder, had set out with \u201ca lethal intent to kill,\u201d and in November 2022, sentenced them as <\/a>adults<\/a>.<\/p>\n Groberman said Friday that he is \u201cnot convinced\u201d the trial judge erred.<\/p>\n \u201cThat cannot, of course, justify imposing a sentence longer or more severe than authorized by law.\u201d<\/p>\n The young offenders\u2019 YCJA sentence includes the four years in custody followed by three years of conditional supervision in the community. Groberman added they will receive credit for the time they\u2019ve spent in custody since the 2022 sentencing.<\/p>\n Prestbakmo\u2019s sister Elizabeth said family members were given a heads-up earlier in the week about the \u201cmost likely\u201d outcome of the appeal. The news was met with \u201cshock and disappointment,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of people are more than disappointed. They\u2019re angry at the judicial system,\u201d Elizabeth said Friday, shortly after the hearing concluded.<\/p>\n Prestbakmo\u2019s brother David agreed.<\/p>\n \u201cI am severely disappointed in Canada\u2019s law change,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Life sentences of Surrey mechanic\u2019s teen killers overturned Published 12:01 pm Monday, March 30, 2026 Warning: this story…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":571442,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194299],"tags":[49,48,87674],"class_list":["post-571441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-surrey","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-surrey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=571441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571441\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/571442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=571441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=571441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=571441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}