A 20-year-old man convicted of second-degree murder in the 2013 random beating death of Surrey resident Karim Meskine will serve a seven-year youth sentence because he was 16 at the time of the killing.
Meskine was hit on the head with a baseball bat near the 22nd Street SkyTrain Station in New Westminster, while on his way to a job interview. He spent his 19th birthday in a coma and died soon after.
The man found guilty of killing him, following a four-week trial in June 2016, cannot be identified because his identity is shielded by the Youth Criminal Justice Act. He will serve four years in jail followed by three years probation.
The Crown argued that he should have been sentenced as an adult but the judge found the killer’s conduct showed immaturity and impulsiveness rather than that of a mature, reflective and considered adult.