RED DEER, Alta. — An Alberta judge is being asked to impose a parole ineligibility of 10 years for a man who shot and killed a shopper outside a Walmart store in central Alberta.
Chase Freed, who is 20, pleaded guilty on Monday to the second-degree murder of Jim Williams in Red Deer in December 2019.
RCMP said at the time that a masked man armed with a sawed-off semi-automatic rifle shot Williams, who was 69, in front of his wife in the store's parking lot during an attempted robbery.
Williams died in hospital.
Prosecutor Dominique Mathurin told Justice Eric Macklin that on top of the automatic life sentence, the Crown and defence agree Freed should not be eligible for parole for at least a decade.
Court heard six victim impact statements, including from Williams's wife, his children and from a woman who witnessed the shooting in the mall parking lot.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 9, 2022.
The Canadian Press
