A Calgary man was handed a three-year sentence for his role as a teenager in the fatal shooting of a “a defenceless victim,” killed during a botched robbery, a judge ordered Friday.

Justice Gary Cornfield ruled the offender, now 20 years old, will spend half his sentence in jail and half under conditions and supervision in the community. 

With credit for some of the time he served pending trial, he has 30 days left behind bars before he is released on conditions. 

The killer can only be identified as CD because he was 17 years old at the time of the killing and is protected under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

Maximum sentence

CD and an older friend, Robert Matthews, were both originally charged with second-degree murder. CD was convicted of manslaughter. 

Matthews admitted to shooting Jordan Jacques-Vetten, but his lawyer argued he should also be found guilty of the lesser offence of manslaughter. 

The judge will deliver her decision in Matthews’ trial in June. 

In CD’s case, prosecutor Scott Wilson asked Cornfield to impose the maximum sentence for a youth convicted of manslaughter: three years.

Wilson proposed two years served in custody and one served in the community under conditions.

Defence lawyer Adriano Iovinelli also proposed the three-year maximum but asked Justice Cornfield to give his client credit for the time he’s spent in custody — just over two years. 

The judge agreed the maximum sentence was appropriate in this case.

“Anything less would not reflect the seriousness of the offence,” said Cornfield.

The shooting

At the time of his death, Jacques-Vetten was experiencing homelessness but had begun to turn his life around. 

He got a job working in the kitchen at a downtown Calgary restaurant.

On Sept. 9, 2023, he got off work and headed to the city’s northwest. 

At around 3:45 a.m., Matthews and CD came across Jacques-Vetten, who was walking in the community of Capitol Hill. 

At the time, the two killers had been attempting to rob ATMs but had been unsuccessful. 

‘Go get him’

When they found Jacques-Vetten, Matthews gave CD an axe and told him to “go get him,” Cornfield noted in his sentencing decision. 

CD chased Jacques-Vetten onto a porch and cornered him. The victim handed over his cell phone but refused to give the robbers his backpack.

Matthews then stepped in and shot Jacques-Vetten.

The two killers fled the scene. 

Matthews and CD were arrested four months later, in January 2024.