A woman was sentenced Tuesday to two years less a day in jail for her role in a drug-related kidnapping and extortion attempt that left a man with a collapsed lung among other injuries.
Upon completing the term in jail, Angel Lee Candice Willard, 30, must also serve three years probation for the December 2017 incident.
Roughly a year-and-a-half earlier, Willard suffered serious injuries, including head trauma and a badly-burned leg, when she ended up pinned beneath a car following a rollover.
Following the crash, Willard's personality changed due to the head trauma and, to deal with her pain, she developed an addiction to opioids that in turn, prompted her to sell drugs to pay for her habit, the court heard Tuesday.
In the process, she accepted a cheque for $1,800 as payment for some methamphetamine. When it bounced, she got hold of the customer and then hold of some people described as "heavy hitters."
Things soon turned for the worse for the customer when a large man got into Willard's car and punched him several times then took his wallet. He was then taken to a series of homes in the Bowl area where he received further beatings. Bleach was poured on his head, he was stabbed with a knife and hit with a hammer.
The culprits also came up with a plan to extort the cash from the victim's mother. She received a call from her son's cellphone number but heard the voices of two strangers who threatened to kill her son if they were not paid.
Police were contacted and all of the members of the RCMP's serious crimes units were deployed. Among other measures, they arranged through the mother to exchange the money for the victim the next day.
Along with the badly-beaten victim, Willard and co-accused Blair Tyler Alec showed up at a local convenience store where the exchange was to take place and they were arrested soon after.
The victim, in turn, was found with bruises to his torso, stab wounds to a leg, two fractured fingers. He was also bleeding badly from his head and needed a tube inserted into his chest to revive the collapsed lung.
According to his victim impact statement, the event left him with scars on his face, legs and hand and numbness to his toes when he stands for a long time. He must also take medication to deal with the trauma, is quick to anger and has moved away from Prince George.
In sentencing Willard, provincial court judge Cassandra Malfair accepted a joint submission from Crown and defence counsels, proposed in part because the victim was unwilling to testify, putting the Crown's case in doubt.
Had the case gone to trial and had Crown been able to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt, Willard would likely have been sentenced to four years in prison, the court heard. Although it appeared Willard did not participate in the beatings, Malfair said she initiated the series of events and likely knew the people she enlisted for her help were capable of inflicting cruel levels of harm.
But to Willard's credit, Malfair noted that she pleaded guilty to a series of charges even though there was no trial, and took responsibility for her actions and showed remorse. Willard also lived up to the strict conditions she had been under during the nearly 2 1/2 years she has been on bail, has severed ties with the drug world and has gone into residential treatment.
Her three co-accused, Julien Nassem Lazarre, Walter Charles Wilson, and Alec have also received similar sentences, it was also noted.
Willard received 16 days credit for time served in custody prior to sentencing, leaving her with 715 more days to serve on the jail term. She will also be subject to house arrest during the first year of probation and to a curfew during her second year.
