He has been serving 2 life sentences in prison for a double murder conviction, but today, 59-year-old Patrick Reyes, a native of Teakettle Village, was re-sentenced to 40 years, or 20 for each killing.
His convictions were for the murders of Wayne Garbutt, and his wife, who Reyes shot and killed in April of 1997 in a land dispute. He shot the couple and then turned the weapon on himself but recovered from the gunshot injury. He was later convicted in a Supreme Court trial.
At today's re-sentencing hearing, Chief Justice Kenneth Benjamin listened to the aggravating factors against leniency, and mitigating factors in Reyes' favor. The aggravating factor was that Reyes had committed two successive killings. The mitigating factor was that he had no previous convictions.
After considering all the entire case and its details, Chief Justice Benjamin sentenced Reyes to serve 25 years in jail for each conviction. That meant that he would have had to spend 50 years, but the judge deducted 5 years from each of the sentences. He deducted 2 for the time that Reyes spent on remand, and another 3 for his exemplary behavior while behind bars. So, that means that he has to serve 40 years, after which he will be eligible for parole - which still amounts to life in prison, since he will be 99 in 40 years.
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