{"id":571824,"date":"2026-03-31T00:43:21","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T00:43:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/571824\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T00:43:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T00:43:21","slug":"calgary-man-gets-8-5-year-sentence-for-helping-shooter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/571824\/","title":{"rendered":"Calgary man gets 8.5-year sentence for helping shooter"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The Calgary man who drove the getaway car he helped steal and then burned it after his friend executed a target in a murder-for-hire was handed an 8.5-year sentence Monday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">On Nov. 3, 2017, Olara Ronnie Obina was shot in the head behind his family\u2019s home in the northwest community of Ranchlands.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Originally charged with first-degree murder, Jessey Pearson pleaded guilty mid-trial to manslaughter.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Defence lawyer Allan Fay asked the court to consider a four- to six-year sentence while prosecutors Todd Buziak and Renato Di Lorenzo argued for a 10- to 15-year prison term.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Olara Ronnie Obina, 29, was killed in 2017. One man has been convicted of first-degree murder. A second man is on trial on the same charge. \" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"537\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/d286faa8af192ebea68b99871528e5a4.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Olara Ronnie Obina, 29, was killed in 2017. One man has been convicted of first-degree murder. A second was handed an 8.5-year sentence for manslaughter. (Submitted)<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">On Monday, Pearson was sentenced for manslaughter by Court of King\u2019s Bench Justice Shane Parker. With credit for the time he\u2019s spent in pre-trial custody, Pearson has about four and a half years left.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8216;Well-planned, dangerous act&#8217;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Parker said in his sentencing decision that Pearson participated in \u201ca well-planned, dangerous act&#8221; and called Pearson &#8220;more than merely a getaway driver.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cMr. Pearson was seriously involved in planning, participation and coverup\u201d of the murder,\u201d noted Parker.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Pearson and Jayme Denovan were both charged with first-degree murder after each confessed to undercover officers three years after the fatal shooting.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Denovan told police he was offered $14,000 by two unknown men to kill Obina. He said he was not told why the men wanted Obina dead.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Pearson admitted he helped steal a Jeep, drove Denovan to Obina\u2019s home, waited for Denovan to leave with a sawed-off shotgun, drove away after the killing, then helped set fire to the vehicle.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Pearson previously acquitted<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">In 2022, Denovan, who was the shooter, was convicted and is serving a life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Pearson was acquitted, but the Crown successfully appealed and a new trial was ordered.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Last October, after testifying in his own defence, Pearson entered a surprise guilty plea to manslaughter.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Parker acknowledged Pearson had no criminal record when he was first charged and has taken steps to address addiction issues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Calgary man who drove the getaway car he helped steal and then burned it after his friend&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":571825,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194293],"tags":[49,2798,48,219849,219846,219848,219845,219847],"class_list":{"0":"post-571824","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-calgary","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-calgary","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-jayme-denovan","12":"tag-jessey-pearson","13":"tag-mr-pearson","14":"tag-olara-ronnie-obina","15":"tag-shane-parker"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571824","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=571824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571824\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/571825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=571824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=571824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=571824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}