The man who killed a well-known Vancouver park caretaker in a frenzied stabbing attack has been sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 12 years.
Brent White, 54, was convicted of second-degree murder in May for the Dec. 10, 2021, killing of 77-year-old Justis Daniel.
At trial, the court heard that Daniel was stabbed more than 40 times inside his caretaker’s home in Tatlow Park.
White, who took the stand during the trial, claimed he had stabbed Daniel with a pocket knife in self-defence.
He told the court that Daniel had suddenly attacked him, biting his neck like a vampire and potentially consuming his blood. He also claimed Daniel threw a knife at his face, and had called him the equivalent of Satan.
The attack left Daniel with 42 knife wounds, 18 of them to the head, face and neck, along with three facial features and a punctured lung.
Both Daniel’s ex-wife and his son provided victim impact statements at White’s sentencing hearing.
Tatlow Park caretaker murder trial closing arguments
“The violent and terrifying nature of his death has inflicted deep trauma and sorrow, which has added a layer of horror to our grief that is incredibly difficult to process and to bear,” Susan Daniel told the court.
“More than anything, I worry about the heavy burden this tragedy has placed upon our son, the stain of the memory of his childhood home, and the difficult task of incorporating it into his family story.”
White was arrested three months after the killing, and police found a knife and shoes with Daniel’s blood on them in his van.
During the trial, neither the Crown nor the defence had called any psychiatric evidence, and White explicitly opted not to pursue a mental illness defence.
Nevertheless, his lawyer told the court there was “compelling” evidence his client had an impaired state of mind at the time of the incident, and that White “genuinely believed” his own version of the story.
— With files from Rumina Daya