A 24-year-old man has been sentence to life in prison with no chance of parole for 17 years for the double murder of a Burnaby mother of three and a Langley man in 2017.
Travis MacPhail was 21 years old when he shot Brandy Petrie, 34, and Avery Levely-Flescher, 20, beside a rural road in Langley during a drug deal gone wrong on Sept. 1, 2017.
He was arrested the same day and, as part of a negotiated plea deal, went on to plead guilty to two charges of second degree murder with a firearm.
In a joint submission in February, MacPhail’s lawyer and Crown prosecutors called for two concurrent life sentences with no eligibility for parole for 17 years.
When MacPhail returned to New Westminster Supreme Court via video link Tuesday, that’s the sentence Justice Lance Bernard imposed.
The judge cited MacPhail’s guilty plea, youth, lack of a criminal record, genuine remorse and efforts at rehabilitation while in custody as factors in his favour.
“While you must pay a high price for your crimes, you are a young man with favourable prospects and the love and support of many people who believe in you,” Bernard said after delivering his sentence. “Please do not let them or yourself down.”
For Brandy Petrie’s aunt, Toni Graillon, though, the punishment was not enough.
“It’s not a surprise because that’s what they asked for, but it’s not enough,” she said. “Maybe he’s changed his life, but he took hers.”
And questions remain about a woman who had been on a drug bender with MacPhail and who had allegedly helped him during the shootings, according to an agreed statement of facts read out during the sentencing hearing.
A publication ban protects her identity, but she and MacPhail had been using drugs together for days leading up to the shooting, according to the agreed facts.
They had run out of money and drugs and called a dial-a-dope drug line run by Petrie and Levely-Flescher.
The four agreed to meet on 64th Avenue in Langley.
MacPhail tried to buy the drugs with a pre-paid credit card the unnamed woman had stolen from her mother, according to the statement of facts, but the other two insisted on cash.
A dispute ensued and ended in MacPhail shooting Petrie and Levely-Flescher with a sawed-off shotgun he had had in the back of his Jeep.
Crown prosecutor Jodie Harris noted the shotgun had to be manually reloaded after each shot and that the woman had helped hand MacPhail extra shotgun cartridges.
After being shot, Petrie had tried to drive away but ended up backing the silver Ford Focus she was driving into a ravine beside the road.
Levely-Flescher called 911 after MacPhail and the woman drove away, telling dispatchers he’d been shot in the arm and head and that Petrie was with him unconscious.
After driving away, however, MacPhail and the woman realized they had forgotten to bring the drugs.
At that point, the woman pointed the shotgun at her own head, according to the statement of facts, and said she would shoot herself if they didn’t go back.
They arrived back at the scene less than five minutes after Levely-Flescher’s 911 call.
They went down into the ravine with the woman carrying the loaded shotgun, according to the statement of facts.
Levely-Flescher, who was still alive, walked towards them. At that point, Levely-Flescher was “shot once in the chest with a shotgun,” said the agreed statement of facts. “The gunshot wound to the chest was the most fatal of Mr. Levely-Flescher’s injuries.”
MacPhail then grabbed a black bag from Levely-Flescher that he believed contained the drugs, and the pair ran back up the ravine and drove off.
They were arrested a short time later after being stopped by Langley RCMP.
The woman with MacPhail, however, has not been charged in the killings.
Petrie’s family has been told nothing about the woman, according to Graillon.
“I can’t imagine that she’s just going to get away with it,” she said.
Levely-Flescher’s mother, Leah Larocque, told the NOW she has known about the woman from the beginning and doesn’t understand why she hasn’t been charged.
“I'm very upset over it,” she said. “It’s frustrating; it’s heart breaking knowing that there is someone else responsible for my son’s death and they are not being held accountable. I don’t understand why.”
The NOW has reached out to the B.C. Crown Prosecution Service for answers.
In February, spokesperson Dan McLaughlin said no one else had been charged in connection with the murders but said he couldn’t comment further as the case was before the courts.
When asked if there were charges pending against the woman, he said, “The BCPS does not generally comment on matters that may be under investigation or charge assessment.”
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