Brettin Veilleux-Pelletier admitted participating in a group beating, kidnapping and killing of 20-year-old Allan Garrioch on Feb. 25.
After masked men with weapons broke into his Humboldt home, Allan Douglas Garrioch was beaten, attacked with a cattle prod, handcuffed and kidnapped.
He was then taken to a rural location, led into a cluster of trees and shot.
“Allan was killed and just left out in the bush,” Crown prosecutor Cory Bliss said at the sentencing hearing for one of five people charged in the kidnapping and death of Garrioch on Feb. 25.
“It’s extremely hard to come to terms with your loved one just being left like that.”
Brettin Andrew Veilleux-Pelletier, 22, was sentenced to 18 years in prison on Oct. 29 in Saskatoon provincial court after Judge Marilyn Penner accepted a joint submission from the Crown and defence lawyer Blaine Beaven.
Veilleux-Pelletier was initially charged with first-degree murder, but pleaded guilty to manslaughter, kidnapping with a firearm, breaking and entering to commit an assault with a weapon and unlawful confinement of another person during the home invasion.
According to witness statements, the attack was motivated by drugs, money and a Hells Angels vest, Bliss said.
Court heard Veilleux-Pelletier beat Garrioch with a cattle prod and helped steal some of his belongings, and was in the vehicle when Garrioch was killed.
He gave a full police statement after his arrest, saying another accused offered to pay him to help get the vest from Garrioch, but that he didn’t know the 20-year-old was going to be killed.
“He was very upset that he had been lied to about what was expected to happen and that Allan got hurt and was killed,” Beaven told court.
“He’s better described as a follower than a leader, and he ended up following the wrong people in this.”
Garrioch’s family members, through victim impact statements, described the agony of knowing he had been kidnapped — but not knowing where he was — for six days, until another accused led police to his body on March. 2.
Veilleux-Pelletier’s father and stepmother — Steven and Jodie Lynn Veilleux — as well as Joshua Domenic Canavero and Tristan Daniel Morrison, are still before the court in connection with Garrioch’s death. Morrison and Steven Veilleux are charged with first-degree murder.
Bliss said the 18-year manslaughter sentence reflects that Veilleux-Pelletier knew he was involved in “a very violent plan” — a plan that led to Garrioch’s death.
In court, Garrioch was described as gentle and kind.
“He was the most passionate person you’d ever meet. He was always smiling, even when times were tough. He would never quit; if he said he wanted something, he wouldn’t quit until he had it,” according to a statement written by a childhood friend.
Article content continued
Veilleux-Pelletier received 14-year concurrent sentences for the kidnapping and break and enter, and seven years concurrent for confinement. He was given enhanced remand credit of one year, leaving 17 years to serve.
He will be nearly 40 years old when his sentence ends, Beaven noted.
“You will be spending a significant amount of time in custody. I hope during that time you will be able to learn some positive things that will turn your life around when you come out,” Penner told Veilleux-Pelletier, who recently became a father.
