Man gets life for role in fatal beating

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This article was published 08/12/2016 (3198 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A 22-year-old man has been sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for the next 10 years after he admitted he helped beat another man to death for being “too quiet.”

Lyle Letandre was 19 and fresh out of jail on a robbery conviction the night he and two other men killed 23-year-old Jamie Nicholas Cook in late October 2013. Letandre had never met Cook before, but they were both invited to a gathering at a King Street apartment block where people were drinking heavily.

Two other men, Aaron Meekis and Kelvin Orvis, were offended that Cook was sitting quietly, court heard. They told him to “stop being a snob” and started a beating that turned into a bloodbath, court heard. Cook was punched, kicked, dragged down the stairs, slammed over the head with a TV and beaten with a refrigerator door. Meekis and Orvis already have been convicted and sentenced for their roles in Cook’s death. Letandre admitted, right before his second-degree murder trial was set to begin this week, that he joined in on the beating.

Cook was found dead outside the apartment building the next morning, and Letandre’s fingerprints were matched to a bloody handprint on the detached fridge door, court heard.

In a statement to police, Letandre admitted stomping, kicking and punching Cook and hitting him in the back twice with the fridge door. Letandre’s lawyer, Matt Gould, said Thursday there were legal arguments about whether Letandre had given his statement to police voluntarily, but that his client wanted to “bring this to an end” and admit his guilt.

In addition to the mandatory life sentence, Crown and defence lawyers recommended Letandre be eligible for parole after 10 years, which Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Colleen Suche accepted. The judge said while there is rarely a rational explanation for a brutal beating, “the circumstances under which Jamie Cook was killed were truly senseless.”

“Some perceived slight, being a snob, being too quiet, resulted in a vicious attack,” she said while delivering her ruling Thursday. The judge described Cook, a father of three young children, as a “gentle man.”

Several of Cook’s relatives were present during Letandre’s sentencing Thursday, showing signs of distress. Paramedics were called to look after one family member who had to leave the courtroom prior to hearing the judge’s decision because of stress-related health concerns.

In a victim impact statement, Jamie Cook’s mother, Elizabeth Cook, wrote that she can’t stop thinking about the awful way her son died and that he didn’t do anything to deserve it.

“You took away a loving and caring son, brother, dad, friend, cousin and nephew. What I miss most about him is you could always talk to him and he wouldn’t judge you. I still see his smile in pictures, but it’s not the same and never will be again. If you thought that Jamie thought he was better than you, Jamie was never that kind of person.”

Letandre grew up in foster care, became an alcoholic at age 14, and once cited his probation officer and his social worker as the two people in his life who didn’t use him and had his best interests at heart, court heard. The judge noted that on the few occasions Letandre has had some support, he’s lived his life in a peaceful way. Otherwise, he’s easily angered and loses control, just as he did during the fatal beating, Suche said.

Letandre apologized to Cook’s family, saying he knows “I’m sorry” isn’t good enough. “If I could go back and change everything, I would,” he said.

katie.may@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @thatkatiemay