Convicted murderer Carlos Guerra Guerra’s sentencing on a gun charge was a bit of an academic – and mathematical – exercise.
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Guerra Guerra, 23, won’t serve any more prison time for possessing a restricted firearm. The 2½-year sentence dealt Thursday to the aspiring rapper convicted this month of second-degree murder and assault with a weapon was covered off by time spent in custody since he was charged in the bush party death of Western University student Josue Silva, 18.
After applying the routine 1.5-to-1 credit for days in custody since early January, Guerra Guerra had 1,602 pre-sentence days. The gun sentence will use up 912, leaving 690 to apply against any future sentence.
He faces a mandatory life sentence in the murder case, with parole ineligibility of 10 to 25 years to be determined later. He also has outstanding charges of obstruction and intimidation.
Guerra Guerra pleaded guilty to the gun charge Jan. 13. The conviction and sentence is now a permanent part of his criminal record and will be there when he gets a chance to seek parole in the future.
Before his murder conviction last fall, Guerra Guerra had no criminal record. However, as was shown during the trial, he had a keen interest in handguns and carried a loaded firearm uninvited into the southwest London bush party on July 31, 2021, to settle a score for his friend Emily Altmann, 22.
Altmann, whose charges all were withdrawn and stayed midway through the murder trial, had called Guerra Guerra claiming she was going to be jumped by 10 men, after she and her friends argued at the party with another group over unwanted videos and a spilled drink. Guerra Guerra and Dylan Schaap showed up in masks and went into the party, while many young people hid in fear in the bushes.
Schaap and Guerra Guerra attacked targets trying to leave the party along a darkened path. Schaap struck Logan Marshall, Silva’s best friend, in the head with the blunt end of a machete. Guerra Guerra shot Silva in the stomach after tackling him to the ground..
Thursday’s sentence was for an offence a week before, but directly related to Silva’s murder.
At an earlier hearing, Superior Court Justice Lynne Leitch saw two cellphone videos of handguns, not played for the murder trial jury, showing Guerra Guerra and another man at Dylan Schaap’s apartment.
Schaap, Guerra Guerra’s sidekick, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for manslaughter and assault with a weapon in connection with the bush party violence.
In one video, with rap music in the background, Guerra Guerra and the other man posed with the firearms and aimed them at the camera. The second video showed Guerra Guerra alone with a gun.
An agreed statement of facts said Schaap was in possession of five guns and asked Guerra Guerra to take them. He agreed, took them to his father’s apartment and showed them off to a woman he was interested in.
The 2 1/2-year sentence was a joint Crown and defence submission.
Assistant Crown attorney Kristina Mildred told Leitch Guerra Guerra’s guilty plea to one count meant no trial was needed, but asked that the judge acknowledged that possessing five handguns, “transporting them through the city (and) bringing them up to an apartment building is quite concerning.”
For this sentence, though Guerra Guerra was considered a youthful, first-time offender, the joint submission called for prison time.
“Possession of firearms has the potential and often do result in devastating and irreparable harm,” she said. “And the sentences imposed need to reflect that.”
Defence lawyer Ricardo Golec told Leitch there was no evidence any of the guns were loaded and noted similar charges against Schaap were withdrawn, but his client took responsibility for gun possession.
Given a chance to speak by the judge, Guerra Guerra said: “Honestly, I just want to turn my life around and I just want to get on the right path. That’s all I can really say, your honour.”
Leitch, in accepting the joint sentencing submission, told Guerra Guerra: “It is true that . . . you are a very young offender. You’ve expressed today the desire to turn your life around in the future. I certainly hope that is the case because that is what would benefit society most.”
She also imposed a 10-year weapons ban and ordered him to give a DNA sample. While his youth, acceptance of responsibility and guilty plea were taken into account, Leitch said the gun offence was serious.
“The evidence showed you posing with a gun, the bravado that was revealed in those videos, perhaps from a lack of maturity, was chilling,” she said.
The restricted weapons “greatly endanger public safety and are a tremendous concern to society that these offences are expanding in their prevalence and severity,” she added.
“I sincerely hope that the severity of the offence is clear to you now and the risk it created for your future and of course the people you encountered,” she said.
Guerra Guerra is to be sentenced for the murder conviction on March 31.