THE older sister of Tammy Lynn Cordone broke down and sobbed Thursday as she told a judge who is sentencing Cordone's killer, "No one deserves to die that way."
Reading her victim impact statement by video link to a B.C. Supreme Court sentencing hearing, Ethel Maguire choked back tears as she recalled the last phone conversation she had with her sister on April 29, 2009 - three weeks before Cordone was stabbed to death by her boyfriend, Alexander Lawrence LaGlace, in West Vancouver's Lighthouse Park.
LaGlace, 49, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in Cordone's death Nov. 30, near the end of his trial on a charge of second-degree murder.
Three weeks later, Maguire said she got a call telling her Tammy had been killed. "I felt nauseous and my heart began to race," she said.
She told the Justice Terry Schultes that Cordone had not had an easy life.
Cordone's two daughters and two grandchildren have all been impacted by her death, said Maguire.
A year after Cordone's death, her two surviving sisters went to the bluff at Lighthouse Park where she died.
Maguire said she's been left with memories and the feeling of "how truly unpredictable life can be."
In the prisoner's box, LaGlace appeared to show little reaction to the emotional statement.
Crown prosecutor Nicole Gregoire asked the judge to sentence LaGlace to between 10 and 12 years in prison and to delay his eligibility for parole.
In pleading guilty to manslaughter, LaGlace admitted killing Cordone, 43, whose body was found in a tent in the West Vancouver park on May 19, 2009, but not that he intended to kill her.
It was LaGlace himself who called 9-1-1 in the early morning hours to report that someone had killed Cordone. An autopsy revealed she had been stabbed 18 times in the chest. There were no signs of a struggle.
LaGlace was a suspect early in the investigation, but police were unsuccessful in gaining his confession until launching an undercover operation nine months later.
LaGlace confessed to killing Cordone as he was riding in a wiretapped car with an undercover officer posing as a crime boss.
In audiotapes of those wiretaps played during the trial, LaGlace talked about how Cordone was stabbed in the chest "probably 10 or 15 times."
LaGlace told the undercover officer there was no evidence because he had got rid of all Cordone's belongings and threw the knife used to stab Cordone into the bush.
In other wiretapped conversations, LaGlace had told the undercover officer on the phone that when he got bored "people disappear into the spirit world."
In another call he told the undercover officer he "just wants to kill someone again."
On Thursday, Gregoire described the troubled relationship between LaGlace and Cordone that began after Cordone moved to B.C. from Thunder Bay in 2008.
The pair lived "mostly as homeless people on the streets," she said. At the time she died, Cordone had a blood alcohol level of .474, said Gregoire.
LaGlace, a paranoid schizophrenic with long-term drug and alcohol addictions, spent the better part of a decade - on and off - at the forensic psychiatric hospital in Port Coquitlam.
According to reports by the British Columbia Review Board, LaGlace was last released from the hospital less than six months before he killed Cordone, despite past concerns that he could pose a risk to the public.
In making its decision to release LaGlace after a hearing in December 2008, the review board panel concluded there was no reason to keep him in the mental hospital although a psychiatrist warned if LaGlace continued abusing drugs, LaGlace would likely, "relapse to overt psychosis including paranoia and fear of others . . . it is in those circumstances that the risk of future antisocial behaviour becomes most prominent."
An earlier report in March of 2008 painted a more concerning picture. In that report, the review panel wrote, "We conclude that the evidence continues to establish that the accused is a significant threat to public safety."
LaGlace was first sent to the hospital more than 10 years ago after being found not criminally responsible for arson by reason of a mental disorder.
Gregoire noted in court Thursday LaGlace has a lengthy criminal history going back to 1985.
