A Victoria man responsible for three killings since 1995 has been sentenced to life in prison with no parole for 18 years.
Daniel Aitken, 34, showed little reaction in B.C. Supreme Court Friday as his sentence was handed down for the second-degree murder of Alexander James McLean, 28, in October 2003.
The court heard that McLean stole drugs and money from Aitken, after which Aitken forced McLean at gunpoint to a waterfront park in Victoria where the victim was beaten and shot twice in the head.
The murder weapon was never recovered.
The McLean family travelled from the northern B.C. city of Prince Rupert to read victim impact statements prior to sentencing.
McLean's father, Gabriel, said he could not stop imagining his son's final moments.
"There was no way he couldn't have known what was going to happen to him," he said. "This had to have been a terrifying experience and that causes us a great deal of pain."
Outside of the courtroom later, the victim's mother said that despite the more than six years that have passed, the pain of her loss remains.
"I feel like there's a great big hole in my soul that will never be filled," said Dorothy McLean.
Aitken was convicted of manslaughter in the 1995 death of a former pimp and drug dealer, and is currently serving a prison sentence for first-degree murder in the killing of another man in 2004 because the man embarrassed him in public.
Aitken was described in a psychological assessment prepared for the trial as a psychopath and an unlikely candidate for rehabilitation who was likely to violently re-offend.
