The man who killed 22-year-old Michael Page-Vincelli with a single sucker punch at a North Burnaby Starbucks three years ago has been sentenced to two years in jail and another two years on probation.
Lawrence Sharpe was found guilty of manslaughter in March.
On July 12, 2017, his girlfriend, Oldouz Pournouruz, got into an argument with Page-Vincelli outside of the Kensington Plaza Royal Bank while Sharpe was inside.
After Page-Vincelli walked away towards the nearby Starbucks, Pournouruz went into the bank and told her boyfriend Page-Vincelli had flicked a lit cigarette at her.
She then led him to the Starbucks and pointed out the 22-year-old.
Sharpe told the court Page-Vincelli had come at him and he had hit him in self-defence, but the jury rejected his testimony after seeing security video that showed Sharpe, who was 40 years old at the time, punch Page-Vincelli in the head without warning while the 22-year-old was eating a bag of chips.
The blow knocked Page-Vincelli down and his head hit the floor.
He died of blunt force trauma to the head, according to a medical expert.
Steffany Page, Page-Vincelli’s mother, said the justice system has failed her family and that two years in jail is not nearly enough.
“I want them to change. A life is worth more than two years,” she told the NOW.
She and Page-Vincelli’s father, Michael Vincelli, told the court they never want to see Sharpe again or hear any apology he might have, but Page said Sharpe’s face and that of his girlfriend haunt her.
“I close my eyes and I see him a thousand times,” she said. “Every time I look at my son, I see them, and I hate it. I hate that I will be haunted for the rest of my life by what they’ve done.”
In the delivering her sentence, however, Justice Mary Humphries said the law is “not an instrument of vengeance” but of retribution, which incorporates the principle of restraint.
“My task is to determine appropriate punishment for this offence, not to incorporate notions of personal animosity, despair and vengeance when imposing sentence,” she said. “With the greatest respect, this is not to be seen as a failure of the justice system; it’s the application of the rule of law, and, without it, we would be lost.”
Humphries went on to say Sharpe would forever live with the consequences of his “hasty and unlawful act – that is the death of a young man beloved by his family.”
Humphries opted for a federal sentence and longer probation to allow for a longer period of supervision and better programs, which would benefit Sharpe’s rehabilitation.
Now that the trial is done, Page said the best she can hope for is that a senseless tragedy like the one that claimed her son will never happen again.
“But I know that’s a lie,” she said, “because it does every single day – bars, parking, Christmas, it’s sad.”
