After a fire in La Ronge apartment building killed three people in 2009, Blake Norman plead guilty to lighting the fire in 2011 and was sentenced to time served and released.
The families of the victims killed in the blaze were there to protest the sentence, and now with Norman facing new charges, they’re questioning the justice system all together.
“It didn’t give us any power or empower us. All it did was give Norman the impression that he was untouchable,” said Kelly Anderson, who’s nephew, Justin Charles, died in the fire.
Charles’ girlfriend, Marsha Mackenzie and their four-month-old son, Jeremy, were also killed in the 2009 fire.
Norman was originally charged with manslaughter but ended up pleading guilty to criminal negligence causing death. He spent one year and seven months in prison before the plea, and the law allowed him to have two for one credit for his time behind bars. The law has since changed.
"In this case Mr. Norman was 19 years old. He had no prior criminal record. And as I said before the crown would not have been able to establish anything other than he deliberately started the fire but believed the fire was out and wasn't a harm to anybody when he left the apartment building,” said director of prosecutors, Lane Wiegers.
A little over a year after being released in 2011, Norman was charged with first degree murder in the death of 18-year-old Dakota Nayneecassum in Prince Albert.
“The fact of the matter is that Mr. Norman should have been in jail, and by sending this message to Mr. Norman that they did send by letting him off, they made him or empowered him,” Anderson said.
He said their family will always be haunted by the deaths of their family members.
The crown has defended the sentence. According to Weigers, there wasn’t a lot of similar cases to compare the case to, and that it did follow the guidelines of previous sentences.
“Certainly 38 months in this situation seemed to be reasonable based on the case precedence that was out there,” Weigers said.
Norman makes his next court appearance on the first degree murder change on August 26.
