Jury decides killer in 2005 shooting can apply for early parole under ‘faint hope clause’

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This article was published 04/04/2024 (876 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Killer Tam Le dropped his head into his hands in the prisoner’s dock Thursday while hearing a jury tell court he should be allowed to apply for early parole in the 2005 murder of Miguel Munoz.

Le, 48, was convicted of first-degree murder in 2009 and received a mandatory sentence of life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.

The jury’s ruling is the culmination of a two-week hearing to determine if Le should be allowed to apply for early release under the “faint hope clause.” The Criminal Code provision allows prisoners sentenced to life in prison for first-degree murder to ask a jury that they be allowed to apply for parole after serving only 15 years.

The faint hope clause was eliminated by Stephen Harper’s government in 2011, but is still available to prisoners convicted before the law was changed.

Jurors deliberated for just over three hours before reaching their decision mid-afternoon Thursday. They could have granted Le the right to apply for parole immediately, but they set June 2026 as the earliest date.

Jurors were told Le had been called to pick up his then-girlfriend’s sister — whom he had also been seeing romantically — at Monty’s nightclub on Pembina Highway on June 15, 2005, and was trying to separate a group of women who were fighting when he and Munoz, 28, “scuffled and exchanged words.”

The men were separated by bar security, but continued to argue.

Witnesses said Le left the bar and crossed the road toward a pharmacy parking lot, gesturing at Munoz to follow him. Munoz removed his shirt and advanced on Le before Le pulled out a handgun and shot him four times at close range — once in the head, twice in the chest and once in the arm.

Le woke up his girlfriend and young child and drove in another vehicle to his parents’ home.

He was arrested that day and denied any involvement in the killing. Jurors were told Le convinced his girlfriend and sister to provide police with a false alibi, claiming his truck had been in his sister’s possession at the time of the killing.

At trial, Le testified he had driven to the nightclub, but turned back after seeing police, fearing he would be arrested for breaching his parole.

Corrections officials and other witnesses at the faint hope hearing, including a retired prison chaplain, testified to the changes they saw in Le over the years, his remorse for killing Munoz and his involvement in many programs and initiatives to better the lives of his fellow inmates.

“I have a choice to better myself and be a role model,” Le told jurors in testimony last week. “That day I shot Miguel, there are a million things I could have done differently… I had a choice.”

The Crown opposed Le’s faint hope bid, with prosecutor Carrie Ritchot arguing his rehabilitative efforts were part of a calculated plan to earn early release, and not evidence of true remorse.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca