A man who masqueraded as a police officer in a home invasion that left a Vancouver senior dead has been handed a 12-year prison sentence.
After credit for time served, Pascal Bouthillette will serve just under seven more years behind bars for the death of 78-year-old Usha Singh.
Bouthillette was originally charged with first-degree murder, but entered a guilty plea to manslaughter on the first day of his trial.
Bouthillette and Sandy Parisian presented themselves at Singh’s home early on the morning of Jan. 31, 2021, wearing jackets bearing the word “police.”
Bouthillette had broken into the same home just days earlier, a fact that B.C. Supreme Court Justice Kathleen Ker was critical in the disguises fooling Singh.
Once inside, Bouthillette severely beat his victim then left her injured on her bathroom floor while he and Parisian proceeded to rob the house. Singh wasn’t located until hours later when a neighbour called in a welfare check. She died two days later.
In handing down the sentence, Ker described the attack as an “exceedingly serious” offence.
“Although Mr. Bouthillette had no weapon, he did restrain Ms. Singh, he did beat her, and there was considerable forethought to going to her home, including resorting to a disguise to gain her trust and bringing zip ties to use in case restraint was required,” she said.
“The sanctity of an elderly woman’s home was violated in a cruel and shocking manner. She was beaten and left to fend for herself, something she was clearly unable to do.”
Ker added that the shocking nature of the crime left the community rattled and afraid.
The way it was committed — with the assailants dressed as police — also threatened to undermine the public’s trust in police, she said.
Ker laid out more than a dozen aggravating factors in the deadly assault. They included that the attack was premeditated, motivated by greed, preyed on trust and targeted a physically and mentally vulnerable person in her own home.
Bouthillette failed to call for help, which he could have done anonymously, Ker noted. She also pointed to his lengthy criminal record, which includes 51 convictions, and the fact he was on probation for three other break-ins at the time of the home invasion.
Ker acknowledged that Bouthillette came from tragic life circumstances, including physical and sexual abuse as a child, an early introduction to hard drugs that had manifested in a lifetime of addiction, and a youth spent mostly in and out of government care.
She noted that he had made “made sincere efforts to turn his life around” since his arrest, and has been drug-free for a full year prior to the sentencing.
Ker added that she believed Bouthillette’s claim to be remorseful for the attack.
“Mr. Bouthillette, through his counsel, advised he is horrified by the violence he inflicted upon Ms. Singh, and is haunted by it,” she said.
“I accept that he will have to live with the consequences of his actions for the rest of his life, and he will be continually reminded of this.”
Ultimately. Ker said the sentence needed to serve to denounce the crime and deter future offenders and accepted a joint submission from the Crown and defence recommending 12 years.
Parisian, who was not involved in the beating but who Ker previously ruled to be an “equal participant” in the decision to enter and ransack the home, was handed a seven-year sentence earlier this year.