Yukon appeal court knocks a year off parole ineligibility period for man convicted in 2015 murder

A Yukon man serving a life sentence for the 2015 murder of Christopher Brisson can apply for parole one year earlier than initially allowed. 

In a split decision issued this month, the Yukon Court of Appeal ruled the judge who originally heard Darryl Sheepway's case failed to properly consider the "harsh conditions" he faced at the Whitehorse jail when determining his parole ineligibility period.

Originally set at 13 years, the appeal court reduced it to 12. 

Sheepway was convicted of second-degree murder in 2018 after a judge-alone trial in Yukon Supreme Court, with the late Justice Leigh Gower finding Sheepway fatally shot 25-year-old Brisson during a botched crack cocaine robbery. 

While a second-degree murder conviction comes with an automatic life sentence, the parole ineligibility period can range from 10 to 25 years. The Crown requested 15 years while the defence asked for 10, with Gower ultimately landing in the middle. 

Sheepway appealed, arguing Gower incorrectly found that his experience at the Whitehorse Correctional Centre (WCC) — namely, prolonged periods of isolation that negatively impacted his mental health — wasn't relevant to sentencing.  

Yukon Court of Appeal cases are heard by a panel of three judges. In the majority decision, Justice Susan Griffin, supported by Justice G. Bruce Butler, sided with Sheepway. 

"I would agree that Mr. Sheepway's conditions of pre-sentencing custody were exceptionally harsh and affected his circumstances at the time of sentencing," Griffin wrote.

"They should be taken into account in mitigating the term of parole ineligibility to the extent it is otherwise greater than the mandatory 10 years."

Sheepway held in jail's 'secure living unit'

Sheepway, who was arrested in 2016, spent nearly his entire time at the WCC in the secure living unit (SLU), where he was placed in segregation-like conditions without the procedural safeguards offered to inmates in the actual segregation unit. 

In a separate civil court case, Sheepway testified that his mental state "significantly deteriorated" due to his level of isolation. His confinement in the SLU, according to jail placement forms, wasn't due to bad behaviour but because of "significant safety and security concerns" officials believed existed because Sheepway had previously worked at the jail as a correctional officer.

A judge later ordered the jail to shutter the SLU on the grounds that it did not have the authority to create the unit in the first place. 

"Recognizing that harsh custodial conditions causing hardship to an offender may be a mitigating factor at sentencing is analogous to the well-established approach of taking state misconduct into account as a factor in sentencing," Griffin also wrote in the decision.

"It is therefore appropriate for this Court to determine afresh the appropriate term of ineligibility for parole." 

In consideration with the other aggravating and mitigating factors in the case, which the decision said Gower properly took into account, she set Sheepway's new parole ineligibility period to 12 years. 

Justice Susan Charlesworth, in her dissenting decision, wrote that Gower didn't make any errors and that his sentence should be allowed to stand. 

Sheepway's parole ineligibility period is calculated from the date of his arrest, meaning he'll be able to apply for parole — though it's not guaranteed it will be granted — starting in 2028. 

Sheepway previously unsuccessfully attempted to have his second-degree-murder conviction overturned and replaced with one for manslaughter.