No parole for 12 years for 2018 rural road murder

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This article was published 27/10/2023 (729 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Manitoba man convicted of second-degree murder after he shot at a passing truck and killed a stranger has been sentenced to life in prison, with no chance of parole for at least 12 years.

Sitting in the prisoner’s box, 24-year-old William Comber showed no visible change in emotion upon learning his sentence Friday morning.

Twenty-year-old Hailey Dugay died Nov. 17, 2018, after the truck she was travelling in was struck by gunfire on a gravel road near Fraserwood, 90 kilometres north of Winnipeg.

“The circumstances of this offence are very puzzling and disturbing,” Court of King’s Bench Justice Vic Toews said. “Had (Dugay) not been sitting in that location in the moving truck, someone else, equally blameless, may have died in her place.”

Another man, Jesse Paluk, spent nine months in jail before a murder charge against him was dropped after police confirmed the bullet that killed Dugay did not come from his gun.

Jurors heard testimony at trial Paluk and Comber had been hunting earlier that day and still had their rifles in Paluk’s truck when they went to the Fraserwood Hotel bar that evening.

Paluk got into a fight with his ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend and was kicked out of the bar.

A short time later, Paluk was relieving himself on the side of a gravel road when he saw three trucks approaching in the distance. Fearing he was going to suffer a second beating, Paluk stood in the middle of the road with a rifle and told Comber, who had arrived with a friend in his own vehicle, to “have his back.”

Jurors heard Dugay and a couple of friends were passengers in a truck being driven by her boyfriend when they approached Paluk in the middle of the road holding a rifle. Paluk told them to “just keep going.”

Several shots were fired at the truck as it sped away, one them hitting Dugay, who was sitting in the rear passenger seat.

Dugay’s boyfriend drove to Teulon hospital, where she was declared dead.

None of the witnesses saw Paluk firing a rifle. Prosecutors alleged Comber was standing at the side of the road where he could not be seen and fired at the truck as it passed.

Prosecutors had recommended Toews order Comber serve at least 15 years in prison before he can apply for parole.

Defence lawyer Martin Glazer urged Toews not to increase Comber’s period of parole ineligibility beyond the minimum 10 years, pointing to the testimony of a clinical psychologist who assessed him as a low risk to reoffend.

Toews rejected the risk assessment, saying Comber has shown a pattern of dangerous impulsivity when faced with a stressful situation, including an attempted jail break in a stolen bread truck after he was denied bail.

“In my opinion, it is highly suggestive of a willingness to engage in impulsive or poorly considered actions that result in placing individuals and the general public at risk,” the judge said.

Dugay’s mother said Friday she was “grateful” for the 12-year period of parole ineligibility, but would have been happier to see Comber take responsibility with an early manslaughter plea.

“The difference between second-degree and manslaughter would have been accountability in accepting it… admitting he was wrong, that he made a mistake, that he did something stupid but didn’t mean to, ” said Dana DesRoches.

Since her daughter’s death, DesRoches has started a charity in her memory, Hailey’s Way, to help young people “falling through the cracks,” with plans for construction of a youth centre in Gimli.

“We want to help the kids that really need it,” she said.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca