too bad he didn’t get the electric chair !
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Eatmon gets 6 1/2 years for 2002 shooting;
Date: Dec 30, 2006 10:38 AM
PUBLICATION: New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal
DATE: 2006.12.30
PAGE: C1/C2
BYLINE: Bobbi-Jean MacKinnonTelegraph-Journal
SECTION: NEWS
WORD COUNT: 510

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Eatmon gets 6 1/2 years for 2002 shooting; Justice
Killing was over a drug debt; family satisfied with sentence

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Terrance Kyle (TK) Eatmon has been sentenced to six-and-a-half years in
prison for manslaughter in the 2002 shooting death of Nathan Seale.

But Justice Peter Glennie of the Court of Queen’s Bench gave Eatmon 18
months credit for time he has already spent on remand, so he will only
serve five years.

The minimum sentence for manslaughter with a firearm is four years under
the Criminal Code.

Crown prosecutor Kelly Winchester was seeking a sentence in the range of
eight to 10 years, pointing to Eatmon’s previous criminal record; a pre-
sentence report she characterized as “negative;” the gravity of the
offence; and the fact Eatmon attempted to minimize his involvement all
along.

But defence lawyer Rod Macdonald argued the minimum four years would be
appropriate, given Eatmon’s young age and possibility for
rehabilitation. It was not an intentional shooting, but careless use of
a firearm, he stressed.

Eatmon, 21, who had a black left eye and shackled feet, showed no
emotion from the prisoner’s box Friday, staring straight ahead.

But earlier, he fought back tears, his voice quivering while he read a
written statement to the court.

He said he was sorry for “the pain and suffering (his) actions have
caused” the Seale family.

He also apologized to his own family for the stress and “embarrassment
that has shadowed over the Eatmon name.

“Mom, even though you raised me the best you could, my bad choices in no
way reflect the way I was brought up,” he said. “I knew deep down the
life I was living would lead me nowhere.”

Eatmon was also handed a lifetime prohibition on owning or possessing
any firearms, ammunition or explosives. And he was ordered to provide a
DNA sample.

“We’re satisfied,” said the victim’s mother Sandy Seale, after
hugging
several relatives and Winchester.

The family has been waiting a long time to get on with their lives after
Eatmon was found not guilty at his first trial in 2003. The New
Brunswick Court of Appeal ordered a new trial after concluding the first
trial judge misdirected that jury on the law of self-defence.

Eatmon was found guilty during the second trial on Nov. 29 after the
jury deliberated for nine hours.

“Our lives have been changed forever for no other reason than greed and
disregard for another human life,” Sandy Seale wrote in a victim impact
statement; one of 17 from extended family members and friends that were
read aloud in court.

She feels angry all the time, she said.

“To know my son’s life was worth no more than $250 is sickening. My life
went with his.”

During the latest trial, the court heard evidence that Eatmon, who was
only 17 at the time, was dealing marijuana for Seale, 24, and owed him
$200 for drugs he got on credit, but later lost when he was arrested.

Seale’s then-girlfriend told the court that the men met on Nov. 21,
2002, to settle the drug debt.

But Eatmon testified the debt had already been paid. He invited Seale to
his house that night to return a handgun he was holding for him because
it had been used in the Nov. 8 shooting of Larry Peters, he said.

Eatmon, who’s only 5’1″, admitted he was holding the .22 calibre handgun
when he went to the door, but said it went off accidentally when he
slipped on a hardwood floor after being pushed by Seale, who was nearly
5′ 10″. The gun did not have a safety mechanism.

A key difference between the latest trial and the earlier one is that
the judge allowed the jury to hear three hours of a taped conversation
between Eatmon and his parents made nearly three months after the
shooting that was legally intercepted under a court order.

It was the first time Eatmon met with his family to talk about the night
of the shooting. At no time did he claim it was an accident.

He mentioned how he had hidden the gun under the stairs of a friend’s
home that night and then later had another friend take a cab and dispose
of the weapon.

The Second Amendment IS Homeland Security !