B.C.’s Court of Appeal has agreed a judge erred in how they calculated credit for time already served in sentencing a man who pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
Kyle Ordway pleaded guilty to pushing Amy Watts, 27, off a 50-foot cliff near Nanaimo City Hall May 8, 2021. Watts was Ordway's "intimate partner," according to the ruling.
Chief Justice Leonard Marchand called Watts’ death “tragic.”
Police found Watts’ body in a wooded ravine June 3, 2021, as a result of information obtained from a friend of Ordway.
“Ordway admitted to several people he and Ms. Watts had a fight and he pushed her off the cliff,” Marchand said in his .
He didn't realize there was no railing in the area, the court heard.
Watts died of extensive head injuries as a result of blunt force head trauma consistent with a fall from a significant height.
Sentencing judge Justice Jennifer Power imposed the suggested four-year sentence on Oct. 24, 2024. She gave Ordway slightly reduced credit for his pre-sentence custody in order to arrive at a federal sentence.
On appeal, Ordway sought an extension of time and leave to appeal his sentence on the sole ground the sentencing judge erred by departing from the joint submission on sentence in relation to credit for his pre-sentence custody.
“The Crown agrees the judge erred as alleged,” Marchand said. “Respectfully, so do I.”
Marchand said, “appellate courts can intervene only if a sentence is demonstrably unfit or the sentencing judge made an error of law or an error in principle that had an impact on the sentence.”
The court agreed Ordway’s was such a situation, and the sentence was changed.
Ordway must now serve four years less 762 days of pre鈥憇entence credit, resulting in a sentence of 698 days’ imprisonment.
“This sentence commences on the date of Mr. Ordway’s original sentence, Oct. 28, 2024,” Marchand said.
With files from Roxanne Egan-Elliott
