NEW WESTMINSTER — A Surrey woman who pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the death of her best friend, who she stabbed 41 times, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Jessica Ashley Hanley, now 25, killed Tashina Rae Sutherland, 23, inside a small rancher at 10593 138th St. in Whalley, on April 26, 2012.
The women were friends since childhood, and shared the same birthday.
Hanley pleaded guilty to the lesser offence of manslaughter on Monday, at the beginning of the fourth week of her second-degree murder trial in B.C. Supreme Court in New Westminster.
Minus time served, Hanley will spend another seven years and nine months in prison.
The Crown and defence submitted a joint submission for the sentence and Justice Elizabeth Arnold-Bailey confirmed it Wednesday.
The judge noted that Sutherland, who was drunk and had cocaine in her blood when she was killed, had attempted suicide twice before and that Hanley had also made an attempt on her own life.
Arnold-Bailey said Sutherland had recorded a message on her Ipod touch on the day she died, apologizing to her family members, telling them to remember her, and to look to the sky when they are sad as she would always watch over them.
“Hanley killed Sutherland, at her request,†the judge found.
She said it appeared Sutherland and Hanley, who was likely also drunk and under the influence of cocaine, appeared to have entered into a suicide pact.
No sentence, she said, can turn back the clock.
Arnold-Bailey noted that Hanley has to live the rest of her life with her “horribly wrong and profoundly misguided act,†taking the life of “someone she regarded as her soul sister.â€
Life, she said, is a gift not to be squandered.
“All life is precious.â€
Sutherland, she said, was a “vulnerable victim†both mentally and physically.
Hanley faced the victim's family in court Tuesday.
"I want to say I'm sorry for all the pain and confusion that I've caused," she told them.
Earlier in the trial, Hanley’s boyfriend testified that when he came home to the crime scene, it looked like a hurricane had hit his place.
Hanley told police the stabbing was an assisted suicide.
"She wanted me to kill her and then kill myself, and I was like, no way," Hanley said.
"I hugged her and I said no, I'm not going to do it," she said, adding that Sutherland "got upset" at her because "I wimped out."
The interviewing police officer asked Hanley about a text message she'd sent seeking advice on what chemicals to use to get blood out of a wooden floor. He noted she had also texted a friend of her boyfriend's with the message, "I just killed her. I just said goodbye to my sis."
Hanley told the officer, "I just stabbed her with the big knife. I don't know why."
Crown prosecutor Jennifer Lopes said Tuesday that Hanley should have called emergency 911 to get help for her vulnerable friend, rather than stabbing her.
Crown prosecutor Angela Lee presented seven victim impact statements Tuesday, on behalf of Sutherland's family.
"I have nothing but a broken heart to replace her," said her cousin, Darian Acoose. "She was a good woman with a heart of gold...our family will always be torn apart."
Shelley Pelletier, Sutherland's great aunt, wrote that she can still hear Sutherland's loud laugh. "My heart smashed into a million pieces," she told the court.
Roger Sterling, her grandfather, says he doesn't trust people now. "This death has made me ill," he said. "She was a bright star, getting ever brighter...my life is empty."
Her brother, Travis Sutherland, is devastated. "Tashina had so much to live for," he said. "I think about my sister every minute, every day."
Her younger sister, Nicole Sutherland, said she cries every day for her. "It cuts me deep she was taken from us," she said. "My sister was smart, beautiful, and was always there for me."
As for Hanley, she said, "I will never forgive her."
Melissa Sutherland, the victim's mom, said the fact she'll never again hear her daughter's laugh or feel her hugs gives her "devastating pain."
And Sutherland's stepfather, Conrad Gordon, echoed that. "The loss I suffer here is monumental. I've lost my little girl."
Hanley's lawyer, Jordan Watt, called it "a very tragic case" involving a "horrible tragic offence."
His client's life has been tragic, too, he said, but added that her life experience by no means excuses her crime. Rather, it "merely puts forward an explanation why."
A high school drop out at Grade 9, Hanley had a "chaotic" upbringing that saw her taken from her mother at six days old. Having no contact with her mom, and never meeting her dad, she was raised by her stepdad. After running away from home, and attempting suicide, "she became a permanent ward of the state."
Watts said Hanley began taking hard drugs like methamphetamine when she was 14, went through a "revolving door" of group homes and foster families and “was involved in prostitution. At age 19 she had a son, who lives with her stepdad. As for her mental health, he added, she has "characteristics of borderline personality disorder.
"We have a young woman who has grown up with essentially no guidance," he said. "Miss Hanley is very remorseful for what she has done and this is something she is going to have to live with for the rest of her life.
"This remorse is genuine," Watt told the court.
Arnold-Bailey agreed.
“She is genuinely remorseful,†she found.
The judge said a clear message must be sent that substance abuse combined with mental illness can cause great harm.
In Hanley’s mind, she said, the killer thought she was doing her friend a favour. As a society, the judge pondered, “What did we fail to provide to both of these women?
“She must never again allow herself to get into such a state,†Arnold-Bailey said.
She told Hanley that if she feels her resolve to be slipping in this regard, that she, too, should look to the sky, remember her victim, and “instead, in her name, do some good.â€
Outside court, Melissa Sutherland said she considered the judge’s words to be “really powerful.â€
tzytaruk@thenownewspaper.com