In a drug-fuelled psychosis, a Kelowna man unleashed three "brutal" and ultimately fatal beatings on a young woman he worked alongside at UBC Okanagan.
For that "truly awful" attack, Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes sentenced Dante Ognibene-Hebbourn, 24, Wednesday to 15 years in prison, less time served.
That means he will spend another 10 years and three months behind bars, assuming he never gets parole, for the Feb. 26, 2022 manslaughter death of Harmandeep Kaur, a woman he'd had a friendly rapport with.
The sentencing hearing, which took place in a Kelowna courtroom over two days, marked the end of a case that dragged on for more than three years.
It didn't, however, amount to closure for Kaur's mourning family.
They had travelled from parts across Canada, as well as Punjab, to seek justice in that Kelowna courtroom, and found themselves coming up short when the day closed.
"There is no fair sentence," Harmandeep's cousin Amrit Pal Singh said, shortly after the hearing concluded.
"We are deeply disappointed — this falls short of justice.... 15 years is nothing, 10 years from now, he'll be 34 years old, and we don't know what he will do. There could be another Harmandeep."
That risk of reoffending is something that Justice Holmes also touched on in sentencing, given Ognibene-Hebbourn's mental health history and his lack of desire to follow a treatment plan.
"I am concerned that Mr. Ognibene-Hebbourn does not understand the full extent of the danger to society he poses as a result of his substance use and his, perhaps, resulting mental health challenges," Holmes said.
Holmes said Ognibene Hebbourn decided in the last six months, while incarcerated, not to continue with the anti-psychotic medication he was prescribed. Rather, he's opted to exercise and focus on his diet. This, Holmes warned may not be enough.
"Mr. Ognibene-Hebbourn's conduct and the truly appalling harm he has caused have, in a way, reduced his moral authority to make choices about his medication, contrary to the advice of medical advisors," Holmes said.
"I say this without specific information about the advice of his medical advisors, but being open to the possibility that either now or in the future, they may advise him to take medication different from what he would prefer to take."
History would support that view.
Ognibene Hebbourn's mental health had deteriorated in the weeks before the attack on Kaur, and his "bizarre or irrationally hostile behaviour" was a cause of concern for his parents, Holmes said.
Years earlier, while living in Ontario, he had been diagnosed with polysubstance drug disorder and another diagnosis of schizophrenia had not been ruled out.
He moved to the Okanagan the year before the killing and began receiving outpatient psychiatric care in March 2021 through the Interior Health Authority, Holmes said.
Through that program, he was put on anti-psychosis medication but Holmes said he asked for permission to stop it because of the side effects.
The dose was then reduced, but he continued request for it to stop altogether.
"Eventually his consulting psychiatrist decided to end the medication and to increase another medication, so long as Mr. Ognibene-Hebbourn' s father agreed to monitor him," she said.
From that point on, his mental health deteriorated further. He missed a couple of appointments with his psychiatrist through the end of the year, and in early 2022 his case manager stepped in with reminders.
The day before he killed Kaur, Ognibene-Hebbourn's father contacted his case manager at the health authority and expressed his concerns. His mother, who lived in Ontario, did the same, Holmes said.
Nonetheless, he went to work as a contract janitor at UBC Okanagan the next morning.
By the time he came in contact with Kaur, he'd taken a number of drugs and was having a full psychotic episode when he unleashed a brutal, unprovoked attack.
Ognibene Hebbourn was taken into custody and initially detained under the Mental Health Act on Feb. 26, 2022, before he was charged in the murder about a month later. An indictment to the lesser charge of manslaughter was entered Jan. 6.
In the days after the killing, he told police that not understand what was happening and (said) that he felt like a toxic, dangerous person," Holmes said.
"In a second police interview the next day (after the killing), he said Ms. Kaur accused him of eating corpses and suggested that he was a cannibal."
He also said that through a window, Kaur had seen him masturbating and he did not want her to tell anyone and he kicked her because of the things he believed she was saying.
"Undisputed forensic psychiatric evidence indicates that although Mr. Ognibene Hebbourn was criminally responsible for his conduct in killing Ms. Kaur, he did not qualify for a verdict of not criminally responsible by reason of medical disorder, his ability to form the specific intent for murder was likely impaired."
Holmes acknowledged, however, that's small consolation for the family who will feel profound loss for the rest of their lives.
"The offence was all the more unsettling because it was almost random and it was utterly meaningless, having no motive or basis, except in Mr. Ognibene Hebbourn's distorted thoughts," she said.
"This court is seeing a significant increase in random offences of serious violence by people in substance induced psychosis or with disturbed thinking due to long term substance use. Offences of this nature cause immediate harm to the victims and their families and friends, but they also reduce the quality of life in the community as a whole, leaving all of us in a constant state of distrust and watchfulness."
