A “mild-mannered” Lillooet man who became addicted to heroin after being prescribed opioid painkillers following a workplace back injury will spend at least the next decade in jail before becoming eligible for parole.
Jeffery Harris, 38, was handed a life sentence on Tuesday after a jury found him guilty earlier this year of second-degree murder.
Gary Mandseth was stabbed and beaten to death inside his Lillooet home on Feb. 10, 2015.
Lillooet is a Fraser Canyon town of about 2,300, a two-hour drive from Kamloops.
At trial, court heard Mandseth sold heroin to Harris on a regular basis and that the two also had a business relationship.
By all accounts heard during Harris’ trial, Mandseth’s death was exceptionally violent. A BC Ambulance paramedic broke down in tears while describing the scene he encountered.
“This murder has had an impact on the community,” Crown prosecutor Chris Balison said in court on Tuesday. “It was seen during trial, not only the struggle of the witnesses coming forward, but also their struggle while giving evidence.”
Defence lawyer Donna Turko stressed Mandseth’s work selling drugs placed him in dangerous situations.
“He was a drug dealer,” she said. “He’s not an innocent victim, not to detract from the fact that there was a loss of life.”
Turko said Harris suffered a back injury about five years ago, after which he was prescribed opioid painkillers. Over time, court heard, he developed an addiction that led to heroin use.
“Doctors prescribe them so readily,” she said. “It’s a classic scenario that started Mr. Harris’ downfall.”
Turko described Harris as “mild-mannered” and “the opposite” of someone one would expect to launch into a violent attack.
For his part, Harris apologized in court — to Mandseth’s family and to his own relatives, as well as to the community of Lillooet.
“In the time since, I’ve had time to be freed from the strong hold of my opioid addiction,” he said.
Harris had no prior criminal record. It took a jury just four hours of deliberations to find him guilty following trial in April.
Sentencing for Harris had been scheduled to have taken place on Aug. 9, but extremely smoky conditions in Kamloops prevented one of his lawyers from attending the hearing.
In addition to the life sentence and 10 years of parole ineligibility, Harris was also ordered to submit a sample of his DNA to a national criminal database and was banned from owning firearms for life.
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