A 26-year-old man was sentenced to just over four years in jail for the fatal shooting of his teenaged cousin in Rochester on New Year’s Day.
Parminder Sakhon appeared before St. Albert Provincial Court on Sept. 23, pleading guilty to manslaughter as well as one count of breach of conditions. Charges of discharging a firearm and pointing a firearm were withdrawn.
Judge Clifton Purvis sentenced Sakhon to 51 months in prison and a lifetime weapons ban.
“I cannot find the words to start to explain how sorry I am,” Sakhon said in court, reading from a pre-written statement. “I do know that I made a terrible mistake that took the life of my cousin, Pardeep Sihu.”
“I know sorry isn’t going to change anything,” he continued. “I hope that it will give some peace of mind that I’m sorry beyond (what) words can explain, and I will never be able to forgive myself.”
Purvis, reading from an agreed statement of facts, said that on the night of Jan. 1, Sakhon was at a party in a cabin five kilometres north of Rochester. Sakhon was highly intoxicated, having consumed alcohol throughout the day.
Purvis read witness statements describing Sakhon being “drunk, really smashed, and out of his mind drunk.”
During this state of intoxication, Purvis added, Sakhon took a loaded 9mm handgun from another male at the party and walked into the same room as his cousin Sihu. He then racked the handgun, pointing it at his cousin and pulled the trigger one time. The shot hit Sihu in the chest, causing his death.
Sakhon remained at the scene confessing to the police both on the phone and once they arrived.
Sakhon’s lawyer Dane Bullerwell and Provincial Crown prosecutor Greg Gudelot were both in agreement that he should be sentenced to a minimum of four years’ imprisonment.
Bullerwell said it was his client’s “extreme intoxication” that caused him to commit the “single stupidest action of his life,” noting there was no motive to willingly murder his cousin.
Sakhon’s charge of breaching conditions stems from being found drinking when he was not permitted to consume alcohol as per bail conditions, according to Bullerwell. He added Sakhon also has a drinking problem and is currently undergoing treatment.
Purvis also spoke about the victim impact statement of the Sihu’s parents.
“They are remarkably gracious in wishing the man that killed their son sobriety, and acknowledge that at some point they hope that his life turns out well,” Purvis read. “Considering the pain that this man caused them, I find their forgiveness remarkable.”
Bullerwell added that his client taking a guilty plea at the earliest opportunity displayed a “real sense of remorse.”
“That’s constant with another mitigating factor, and that was his acceptance of responsibility,” he said. “Literally, from the first phone call to the police, he acknowledged he caused his cousin’s death.”
“The reason for him shooting his cousin is a mystery,” Purvis said. “Perhaps the explanation for it, is because he was drunk. That drunkenness operates to satisfy me that he could not conform the intent to commit murder. It was a tragedy, but it was a manslaughter as defined by the Criminal Code.”
