The Quebec Court of Appeal on Wednesday upheld the life sentence imposed on a street gang member who attempted to murder a man outside his home in 2019. The judge therefore made no error in emphasizing the increase in gun violence among street gangs.
“The crime committed is thoughtful, planned, executed coldly and denotes a total disregard for the life of a human being. [Hensley Jean] fully realized what he was doing. […] In the absence of any mitigating factors, and taking into account the criminal profile of [Jean]the judge could conclude that the maximum sentence was a just and appropriate sentence,” concluded Court of Appeal judges Suzanne Gagné, Geneviève Cotnam and Guy Cournoyer.
Found guilty by a jury of attempted murder, Hensley Jean was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for seven years in December 2021. This is the maximum sentence. It was the first time in Quebec that such a harsh sentence was imposed for such a case.
In June 2019, Hensley Jean opened fire on Samuel Indig, an ordinary man who had just moved with his family into a quiet neighbourhood in Saint-Eustache. The shooter was targeting the former resident of the house. He “cowardly” shot the victim in the back in front of his home, before approaching to finish him off. If Jean’s gun had not jammed, Samuel Indig would have been a dead man.
“I saw a cannon pointed at me and I ran. I jumped from the balcony into the flowers to protect my girlfriend. I was terrified,” he testified at the trial. He was seriously injured in the attack.
At trial, Hensley Jean claimed to have fallen asleep for several hours in the vehicle after eating a bag of chips. He woke up without knowing what had happened, according to him. A far-fetched version rejected by the jury.
Superior Court Judge Hélène Di Salvo found no mitigating factors against Hensley Jean, who has been affiliated with a Montreal North street gang of red allegiance since his teenage years. The judge also made a passionate plea against gun violence in Quebec.
On appeal, the defense accused the judge of having “unduly” insisted on the role of street gangs and the increase in gun crimes. However, Judge Di Salvo did not err in insisting on the objectives of deterrence and denunciation, concluded the Court of Appeal.
Also, the judge was not mistaken, according to the Court of Appeal, in not considering Hensley Jean’s young age (23 years old) at the time of the events as a mitigating factor, given his long criminal record and his level of dangerousness.
His accomplice and driver Jean Gérard Sterling III had been sentenced to 10 years in prison. According to the defense, the trial judge should have considered this sentence under the principle of parity of sentences. However, the situation between the two men was very “different,” the Court of Appeal recalled.
The Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions welcomes this judgment, which has been awaited for almost three years.
“The province’s highest court has just confirmed that in cases of particularly serious crimes involving gratuitous violence, the use of firearms and little hope of rehabilitation for an accused who has been criminalized for a long time, despite his young age, this type of sentence, although rare, may be imposed by trial judges,” maintains Crown prosecutor Me Steve Baribeau.