Mark Lindsay, who is facing an automatic life sentence for the second-degree murder of his former girlfriend, will learn Thursday how long he will remain behind bars before he can apply for parole.
The 29-year-old son of former Edmonton police chief John Lindsay was convicted in May of causing Dana Turner’s horrifying death in August, 2011.
Lindsay admitted to RCMP in a videotaped interview that after he and Turner smoked crack cocaine in a rental car, he stabbed the 31-year old in both eyes with a pencil.
Lindsay also confessed he wanted to make sure she was dead, so he strangled Turner with a shoelace, then ran over her head with the rental car.
Dana Turner was murdered in August, 2011 by her ex-boyfriend, Mark Lindsay. (Supplied)
Lindsay told Mounties that at the time he feared Turner. He said he thought she was a witch, part of a group he called the Healers who were determined to kill him.
In May, Queen’s Bench Justice Eldon Simpson rejected Lindsay’s explanation as an “excuse” and a “creation.”
Simpson concluded Lindsay attacked Turner out of anger and as a consequence of his drug and alcohol use.
The judge convicted Lindsay of second-degree murder. His sentencing is Thursday in Red Deer.
‘Pure, unadulterated hell’
Turner’s mother, Wendy Yurko, wrote her victim impact statement a year after her daughter was killed.
She plans to be in court Thursday to deliver her statement in person, but acknowledges no sentence will ever bring her daughter back.
Wendy Yurko will deliver her victim impact statement in a Red Deer courtroom at Mark Lindsay’s sentencing hearing. (Janice Johnston/CBC)
“There is no justice for us,” Yurko said. “Our lives are not going to change at all. Our lives are pure, unadulterated hell and my daughter is dead.
“The only thing this court system can possibly accomplish is keeping Mark Lindsay away from other innocent people so that we don’t lose more lives.”
Lindsay will also be given a chance to address the court before he’s sentenced.
A second-degree murder conviction carries an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for 10 to 25 years.