A Toronto man has been sentenced to nine years in a federal penitentiary for shooting a Quinte West man dead outside Belleville’s Northway Restaurant in the early morning of July 10, 2022.
The sentence was handed down at the Quinte Consolidated Courthouse by Madame Justice Elaine Deluzio.
Originally charged with second degree murder, 34-year-old Jeremy David Phillip had pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter and two weapons charges in June in connection with the death of 30-year-old Jesse Weekes.
Phillip had been stabbed in the head at the Northway and afterward fired 11 bullets from a 9mm handgun, hitting Weekes seven times.
Phillip was arrested five months later in December at a residence in Pickering where he was found to be in possession of a loaded handgun and an extended ammunition magazine. The handgun was not the same one used during the shooting.
Phillip lived in Belleville before moving to the GTA not long before the shooting incident.
In court Friday, Crown Attorney Michael Lunski and defence lawyer R. Craig Bottomley presented a joint submission to Justice Deluzio of 12 years in penitentiary minus pre-sentence custody.
Phillip was at Central East Correctional Centre in Lindsay for 568 days after his arrest.
The lawyers agreed he should receive one and a half days credit for days served pre-sentence, meaning the judge would credit Phillip with 852 days pre-sentence custody thus leaving him nine years and three months in custody.
However, later in the hearing, Bottomley suggested his client be credited two and a half days for every day served in a lockdown situation and the days when the jail was “triple-bunking” meaning three men were sharing a jail cell meant for two.
Bottomley said it was becoming more common for judges to consider harsh jail conditions when considering a final sentence. With his suggestion, Phillip would serve just under eight years in additional jail time.
“I hate to say this but I wouldn’t be surprised if my client has a better time of it in a federal penitentiary than he’s had in a provincial institution. The common themes leading to lockdowns and triple-bunking are a lack of funding and a lack of staff,” said Bottomley.
During the delivery of the sentence Justice Deluzio said she’s been at several prisons and agreed that, at times, conditions in them were “inhumane.”
She added credit for pre-sentence custody, due to harsh conditions, lessening the joint submission by three months to nine years in custody, but still more than the defence suggestion the actual jail time be just under eight years due to the lockdowns and triple-bunking.
The judge said she considered Phillip’s childhood when considering the sentence. He’d been taken into care at 10 months old, had become a ward of the state at three years of age, and had bounced around the province in various foster homes.
“There’s no doubt your childhood is a major reason you became what you became but killing a person is serious and you have caused the Weekes family and friends unknowable pain that they will carry for the rest of their lives.”
Deluzio called the four victim impact statements, particularly one by Jesse’s mother Juliette Weekes, as “heart-breaking.”
An emotional Juliette told court a piece of herself went missing on July 10 of 2022 and she cries for Jesse each and every day. She also said she prays she’ll one day be able to forgive Phillip but has not yet been able to do that.
She said her son wasn’t perfect but he didn’t deserve to be shot to death saying the fact that Phillip fired 11 shots showed he had every intention to kill him.
She had high praise for the Belleville Police Service’s hard, persistent work in finally finding and putting Phillip behind bars. No one at Northway at the time of the incident identified him.
At the end of her statement she played court a song in which the opening lyrics were “If I’d only known the last time would be the last time……”
Before sentencing, Phillip stood and apologized to the Weekes family. “I don’t expect you to forgive me. I don’t think I could forgive me if I was in your position. I intend to be a better man when I’m released.”
Defence lawyer Bottomley said Weekes’s family and others had committed to providing him support upon his release from penitentiary.
