{"id":572092,"date":"2026-03-31T03:38:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/572092\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:38:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:38:11","slug":"life-sentences-of-teen-killers-in-surrey-mechanics-death-overturned-bc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/572092\/","title":{"rendered":"Life sentences of teen killers in Surrey mechanic\u2019s death overturned &#8211; BC"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\tDescrease article font size<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tIncrease article font size<\/p>\n<p>The life sentences of two teens convicted in the <a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/news\/5774423\/fatal-stabbing-homicide-semiahmoo-shopping-centre\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">murder of a well-known Surrey mechanic<\/a> have been overturned.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/70c8fc80.png\" alt=\"\" style=\"position:absolute;width:1px;height:1px\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Paul Prestbakmo was stabbed to death near Semiahmoo Centre on Aug. 16, 2019.<\/p>\n<p>The well-known mechanic was on his way to McDonald\u2019s to grab a pop when he was stabbed.<\/p>\n<p>He was stabbed 42 times in 26 seconds.<\/p>\n<p>The teens, who were 15 and 16 at the time, were found guilty of second-degree murder.<\/p>\n<p>They were later sentenced as adults and given life sentences with no chance of parole for at least seven years.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-video__image\" alt=\"Click to play video: 'IHIT investigating fatal stabbing outside Surrey mall'\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GBC_MACDONALDNOON_081619_848x480_1587938371863.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\"   data-\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t2:15<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tIHIT investigating fatal stabbing outside Surrey mall\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>However, on Friday, the teens won an appeal and had their sentences reverted to the maximum allowed under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, which is seven years, including four in custody.<\/p>\n<p>Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI believe now that it\u2019s more of a slap on the wrist,\u201d Elizabeth Prestbakmo, Paul\u2019s sister, told Global News on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\tMore on Crime<br \/>\n\t\t\tMore videos\n\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"170\" height=\"225\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1767930311_275_national.jpg\" alt=\"Get breaking Canada news delivered to your inbox as it happens so you won't miss a trending story.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tGet breaking National news<\/p>\n<p>Get breaking Canada news delivered to your inbox as it happens so you won&#8217;t miss a trending story.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople that have committed other crimes will now just be using the system to appeal.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Elizabeth said her brother was a kind and generous man.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe was a very giving man, he was gentle, he was kind, he would do anything for his friends, he was very loyal,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Elizabeth believes her brother\u2019s killers will be released into the community in November \u2014 four years after they were initially sentenced.<\/p>\n<p>The appeal court ruling is rooted in a Supreme Court of Canada ruling from last July, Rex v. IM, which overturned an adult sentence imposed on a youth who had been convicted of first-degree murder.<\/p>\n<p>The court ruled that the Crown failed to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the youth had the maturity of an adult when the crime was committed.<\/p>\n<p>\u2013with files from Rumina Daya<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t&amp;copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Descrease article font size Increase article font size The life sentences of two teens convicted in the murder&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":572093,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194299],"tags":[49,48,2169,219964,219965,87674],"class_list":["post-572092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-surrey","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-crime","tag-paul-prestbakmo","tag-paul-prestbakmo-murder","tag-surrey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572092","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=572092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572092\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/572093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=572092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=572092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=572092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}