The Surrey man accused of killing a convenience store worker on Christmas Day 2011 pleaded guilty to manslaughter Thursday, admitting he shot 27-year-old Alok Gupta with a sawed off rifle during a robbery in which he stole less than $65.
William Andrew Whiteside, 23, a fair-skinned man with short strawberry blond hair and tattooed arms, was originally charged with second-degree murder, but pleaded guilty to the lesser charge in Surrey Provincial Court.
Lawyers are asking for a 16 year jail sentence, minus the 10 months Whiteside has been in custody.
Gupta, a business student at Kwantlen Polytechnic University, was working at Ken's Groceries near 110 Street and 96 Avenue on Dec. 25, 2011 when Whiteside and two friends decided to rob a store because they were out of money.
They drove to Ken's in a car they had stolen the day before. Whiteside and another male burst through the front door.
Whiteside was carrying a sawed off 22 calibre rifle loaded with one bullet. He pointed the firearm at Gupta, who backed up with his hands up. Between $45 and $65 was taken from the cash register. As Whiteside was walking out of the store, he was startled by a sound from Gupta and fired the rifle. A single shot struck the store clerk in the upper right chest. Whiteside concealed the gun and fled to a waiting car.
Gupta walked to a neighbour's, holding his shoulder, his chest bloodied.
"Please, help me," he said, before collapsing on the ground.
He stopped breathing and was later pronounced dead in hospital.
In a victim impact statement, Gupta's father said his only son was a bright student who left India for Canada – "the country of his dreams" – in March 2011 to continue his studies.
But Canada, he said, "turned out to be the country of our doom."
He said he, his wife and daughter consider Dec. 25 the "permanent black day" of their lives.
"We are just drifting like a rudderless ship," said the dad.
Whiteside and his friends spent the stolen money on speed, according to an agreed statement of facts by Crown and defense lawyers. They then torched the stolen car.
Four days later, there was a fight at a burger restaurant on King George Boulevard where Whiteside and some friends were.
During that incident, police seized a loaded, sawed off rifle Whiteside had in his pants. He later admitted it was the same gun he had used at Ken's Groceries and at an armed robbery at Old Yale Grocery on Dec. 29 – four days after Gupta's shooting. During the Dec. 29 robbery, like at Ken's, Whiteside also pointed the gun at a store clerk before stealing $55 and some cigarettes.
In court on Thursday, Whiteside pleaded guilty to that robbery as well.
Whiteside was on parole and had a lifetime firearm ban at the time of both store robberies.
Crown counsel Wendy Dawson called Whiteside's actions "totally senseless" and said he was "directly and solely responsible" for Gupta's death and a lifetime of grief for his family.
Whiteside, she said, had dealings with police since age 12 and had a "significant" drug and alcohol problem. He's had 31 convictions since 2002, most as a youth offender.
However, she said, he has expressed remorse for the shooting on several occasions and has cooperated with investigators.
Judge James Jardine will deliver Whiteside's sentence April 9.