Ten-year sentence sought for gang member

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This article was published 21/08/2017 (3125 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A 24-year-old man is awaiting his sentence for manslaughter after admitting to his involvement in a fatal shooting outside a Main Street nightclub more than three years ago.

Rustom Paclipan, 23, died after he was shot in the heart when a handgun that was being used to intimidate someone else was mistakenly fired at him.

Issac Ndlovu, a member of the Mad Cowz gang, had instructed the gun be taken to the Winnipeg club that night.

Ndlovu is the third of three accused to plead guilty to manslaughter in Paclipan’s death.

Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Vic Toews reserved his decision on Ndlovu’s fate until October.

Crown attorney Chris Vanderhooft is seeking a 10-year sentence, while defence lawyer Evan Roitenberg asked for six years.

Ndlovu was 22 on May 3, 2014, when he and other Mad Cowz gang associates were hanging out at the Opera Ultralounge nightclub and some people in his group got into an argument with rival gang members.

Neither Ndlovu nor the victim was involved in the argument, but that didn’t stop Ndlovu from calling up a lower-ranking gang associate, a 16-year-old male, and directing him to take a semi-automatic, .22-calibre handgun to the scene because of “the beef.”

The gun was passed off to 22-year-old Marcus Richard, who pulled the trigger.

The gun went off by accident, court was told during Ndlovu’s sentencing hearing last week.

“When Mr. Richard went to the other group of individuals, he did not immediately fire at them. He actually swung his arm (at another man) with the gun to pistol-whip him, effectively to hit him with the gun. It’s when his arm was pulled back by someone else in the group that his hand was on the trigger and the gun went off, and that’s when the gun hit Mr. Paclipan,” Vanderhooft said.

Richard fired five more bullets, striking some of his associates in the process. The shooting outside the nightclub was captured on video surveillance, and as a result the three men each pleaded guilty to manslaughter. Ndlovu was initially charged with first-degree murder.

Richard pleaded guilty last winter and received an 18-year sentence. The 16-year-old who followed Ndlovu’s instructions by taking the gun to the nightclub was sentenced as an adult to six years.

Ndlovu’s role in the shooting was on par with the teen’s, his defence team argued.

The Crown urged Toews to consider Ndlovu’s gang involvement as an aggravating factor.