71 Offences, Out of Jail One Year As An Adult, Kills Four, Not A Dangerous Offender

SLAVE LAKE, Alta. - An Alberta judge has ruled that a serial criminal who admitted to killing four people while driving drunk is not a dangerous offender.

Instead, Raymond Yellowknee was declared a long-term offender in provincial court in Slave Lake on Thursday and will face a sentence of 20 years in jail - less four years credit for time served - with an additional 10 years of supervision after his release.

"You have harmed many people in the communities of Driftpile and Slave Lake," provincial court judge Ernie Walter told Yellowknee in front of a packed and sombre courtroom.

Yellowknee, 35, pleaded guilty in 2006 to four counts of impaired driving causing death as well as to criminal flight from police and driving while suspended.

He was drunk and driving a stolen pickup truck earlier that year when he slammed into a car carrying Misty Chalifoux, 28, her daughters Trista, 9, and Larissa, 6, and her stepdaughter Michelle Lisk, 13.

"The offences of which Mr. Yellowknee has been convicted ... are in my view as close to meeting the requirements for the imposition of the maximum sentences as they can possibly be," Walter said in his sentencing as the family of his victims softly sobbed.

Yellowknee has amassed a total of 71 offences and has been out of jail for only one year since he was 18.

However, Walter said Yellowknee's potential for rehabilitation, as well as his aboriginal and family background, made the long-term offender sentence more appropriate.

In 1999, a Supreme Court of Canada ruling set out sentencing guidelines instructing judges to consider the unique circumstances of aboriginal people.

Yellowknee stared blankly ahead during the sentencing.

He would have become Canada's first drunk driver to be declared a dangerous offender had the Crown been successful in its request. A dangerous offender sentence has no end date.

Long-term offenders are those who are considered likely to re-offend but who can be managed through a regular sentence.

During the hearing, Yellowknee's lawyer, Laurie Wood, argued her client didn't fit the criteria of a dangerous offender.

However, Crown prosecutor Jonathan Hak pointed out that Yellowknee led police on two previous high-speed chases - one in which he crashed into the pursuing police cruiser - and has had three previous impaired driving convictions.

In a victim impact statement, Chalifoux's grandmother, Muriel Carifelle, told court that Chalifoux was nearly finished her teacher training. She said Trista wanted to be a doctor, Larissa an actress and Michelle a lawyer.

The family also has two young sons and Carifelle said they're scared to sleep alone and scared to let loved ones out of their sight lest they never see them again.

"I am missing four pieces of my family, my heart, my bloodline," said grieving grandfather Eugene Chalifoux. "I'm tired, so exhausted from wanting them home again."

Chalifoux's husband Sheldon told court he found himself struggling to make it through the tragedy.

"How do you move forward when you're constantly yearning for the deepest meaning of life to smile at you and give you a hug or an 'I love you, Daddy'? How do you find peace in the constant aching for the loved ones you lost so horribly?"

Robert Solomon, spokesman for Mothers Against Drunk Driving, said his group was generally satisfied with Thursday's sentence. He said even dangerous offenders may apply for parole after 10 years and that most offenders are eventually parolled.

"Yellowknee may not be out of prison a whole lot earlier ... than if he'd been designated a dangerous offender."

Solomon said Walter was legally correct to apply a lesser sentence if it would meet public safety concerns.