BURSTA man convicted of second-degree murder in the hatchet attack that killed a 70-year-old man was sentenced Aug. 27 to life in prison with no possibility of parole for 11 years.
Justice Veronica Jackson sentenced Michael King, 45, who walked into his roommate’s bedroom in Cook Street Village on March 6, 2023 and struck Michael Jones five or six times in the head, leaving him in a pool of his own blood in critical condition.
Jackson told the court the attack was particularly disturbing because of the nature of the crime and Jones’s age, health and mobility issues.
“It was a brutal attack,” she said. “Mr. Jones was an elderly, vulnerable person, essentially a shut-in, whom Mr. King attacked while Mr. Jones was in his own room, indeed in his own bed — a space where he was entitled to feel and be safe and secure.”
The assault caused significant chop wounds to the left side of Jones’s head, resulting in multiple fractures to various skull bones. One fracture was so deep that a piece of bone was lodged in his brain tissue, Jackson added. She assessed King’s moral culpability as high.
“The attack was fueled by Mr. King’s long-standing animosity to Mr. Jones smoking, and he attacked Mr. Jones in anger,” she said.
Following the attack, Jones was transported to hospital, where he died several days later.
In determining King’s sentence, Jackson reviewed the circumstances surrounding the offence. Crown counsel had asked for a life sentence with at least 15 years of parole ineligibility, while the defence sought the minimum of 10 years ineligibility.
Jackson cited numerous aggravating factors, including the brutality of the murder, Jones’s vulnerability, King’s attempts to cover up the crime and his delayed surrender to police.
“King’s rehabilitative prospects are unknown, but I am very concerned with the fact that he responded with such violence to a situation that he found made him angry and in doing so killed a defenceless old man,” she said. “That is deeply concerning.”
Jackson also identified several mitigating factors, including King’s remorse expressed during the sentencing hearing, his troubled childhood and the challenges he faced as a result, his eventual surrender and cooperation with police, as well as his lack of a criminal record.
She also highlighted King’s involvement in preventing a violent bank robbery, for which he received a Citizen’s Award from Saanich police in 2019.
At the conclusion of the sentencing, Jackson asked King to stand as she delivered her final remarks.
“Having considered the evidence and the facts as I have found them … I have concluded that it is appropriate to increase the parole ineligibility period as a means of conveying this court’s strong denunciation for this brutal attack,” she said. “However, I am also mindful that there are significant aggravating but also mitigating factors, and I’ve endeavoured to balance those in my sentence.”
Before Jackson delivered her decision, Jones’s sister, Beverly, delivered an emotional victim impact statement describing the lasting impact of her brother’s death on the family.
Holding in tears and sobs, she stood at the podium, with King sitting metres away in the prisoner’s dock.
“We are devastated by the loss of our brother Mike,” she told the court. “He died tragically under horrific circumstances. No one should endure what he went through, and we as a family are horrified.”
Beverly recalled spending several days by her brother’s bedside in intensive care, where he was on a ventilator before he died.
“Seeing him in that condition was a true horror for our family,” she said. “No one should have to endure injuries like that, and those images will stay with us forever.”
She described her brother as a 70-year-old man who found comfort in helping his community and neighbourhood.
Born and raised in Victoria, Jones was one of five children. He played soccer from the age of five into his 20s and remained active throughout his life. For more than 40 years, he renovated and built homes across Greater Victoria, with his sister describing him as a “true craftsman” who was always willing to help others.
To this day, the family continues to grapple with the circumstances of his death.
“The agonizing image of our brother in the ICU still looms large in our minds,” Beverly said. “Those final days in the hospital and the circumstances of Mike’s death have left a deep and lasting impact on our family.
“Our brother is gone, and our family will never be the same. The loss of Mike has left a permanent hole in our lives, and we will carry this grief with us for the rest of our lives.”
King was born in 1980 and lived with both parents until he was about five. Defence lawyer James Heller told the court King experienced physical abuse from his mother and was placed in a group home from 1988 to 1991 before being placed with foster parents.
King later worked a variety of “odd jobs.”
Heller described King as respectful, intelligent, humble and sincere.
King began experiencing hallucinations in 1999 and was diagnosed with schizophrenia the following year. Heller said King stopped using drugs other than cannabis in the early 2000s and was taking clozapine, an antipsychotic medication, at the time.
Heller said the conflict between King and Jones had developed over a smoking dispute in their home, which caused King to develop resentment over time.
“Mr. King just festered … and we see how things ultimately erupted in the circumstances that led to this murder,” Heller said.
Before the sentencing hearing concluded, Heller asked the judge to allow King to address the court. King stood and turned toward the gallery, looking directly at Jones’s sister.
“Please accept my true apology for what’s happened,” King said. “I don’t understand how that could be, and what you’ve gone through is not right.”
“I take full responsibility for his death and I hope that you can get over this.”