Close X
Sunday, January 12, 2025
ADVT 
National

B.C. Man Killed Wife, Took Daughters To Church Before Smothering Them: Court

Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 17 Sep, 2019 10:14 PM

    KELOWNA, B.C. - A man who murdered his wife during an argument about his drinking then took his daughters to church before smothering them was sentenced Monday to 35 years in prison before he's eligible for parole.

     

    Jacob Forman pleaded guilty earlier this month to the second-degree murder of his wife Clara Forman on Dec. 17, 2017, and to two charges of first-degree murder in the deaths of seven-year-old Yesenia and eight-year-old Karina.

     

    "He said (during a confession to police), he thought it would be better for them to go home to heaven than to grow up in a world where daddy had killed mommy," Crown prosecutor Murray Kaay told B.C. Supreme Court during Forman's sentencing hearing.

     

    GRAPHIC WARNING: This story contains details that may disturb some readers.

     

    Kaay said Forman killed his wife by hitting her with a sledgehammer. The court heard the woman's last words, after the second of three blows, were "What are you doing?"

     

    After telling the girls to put on their pyjamas and letting them watch Netflix, Forman told his daughters he wanted to "play a game" with them, Kaay said.

     

    First, he took Yesenia to her bedroom and choked her from behind. "He continued to choke her until her heart stopped," Kaay said

     

    Forman also used a child's toy, a horse's head on a stick, to apply pressure to Yesenia's throat, he said.

     

    After murdering Yesenia, Forman killed Karina the same way, Kaay said.

     

    Forman, who owned a .22 calibre rifle, then spent several hours contemplating suicide, but decided against it, the court heard.

     

    Justice Allan Betton sentenced Forman to consecutive life sentences, 25 years without parole for the deaths of his daughters and 10 years without parole for the murder of his wife.

     

    "This breach of trust of such young children, vulnerable and trusting of their father, was horrific," Betton told the court.

     

    Including the two years he's been in custody since his arrest, Forman will not be eligible for parole until 2051, when he is 68 years old.

     

    The court heard Forman went to work as usual the day after the murders and bought cleaning supplies on the way home to try to remove bloodstains from the master bedroom, Kaay said.

     

    When Clara didn't show up for work on Dec. 19, friends twice called the Forman's residence. On the first call, Forman said his wife wasn't feeling well, the court heard. The second time, he said Clara had left him and taken the children.

     

    One of those friends called police, who went to the home and were denied entry as Forman told them Clara had left him, the court heard.

     

    When police returned to search the home, the court heard they found the bodies in the garage.

     

    Forman had originally pleaded not guilty when his trial began earlier this month. His defence lawyer said after the guilty plea that Forman believed his self-described acute alcoholism would offer him a defence.

     

    In murdering his children, Forman demonstrated the "most egregious breach of trust imaginable," Kaay told Judge Allan Betton.

     

    "Mr. Forman killed his daughters in their own bedroom, which should be a place of safety."

     

    Forman's assertion that he killed his wife in a fit of anger and then murdered his children because he didn't want them to grow up knowing he was a murderer "can only be described as narcissistic and selfish to a degree which defies comprehension." Kaay said. "He killed his children in a callous, cowardly manner."

     

    Defence lawyer Raymond Dieno had asked the court to impose a sentence of 25 years without chance of parole, the automatic term for a first-degree murder conviction.

    MORE National ARTICLES

    12 People Arrested On 'Outstanding Immigration Warrants,' London Police Say

    12 People Arrested On 'Outstanding Immigration Warrants,' London Police Say
    Police say in a statement that officers responded to a call for service in a residential area of the city's north end Saturday evening.

    12 People Arrested On 'Outstanding Immigration Warrants,' London Police Say

    Air Canada Reviewing How Crew Left Passenger On Parked Plane

    Air Canada Reviewing How Crew Left Passenger On Parked Plane
    Air Canada said Sunday it's looking into how crew members could have disembarked from a plane without noticing a sleeping passenger who was left behind.

    Air Canada Reviewing How Crew Left Passenger On Parked Plane

    Montreal's New, $4.4-billion Champlain Bridge Opens To First Traffic

    Montreal's expensive new Samuel De Champlain Bridge opened to traffic for the first time this morning, about six months behind schedule.

    Montreal's New, $4.4-billion Champlain Bridge Opens To First Traffic

    Mysterious $100 Bill, Life-affirming Note Delights Nova Scotia Town

    An anonymous benefactor who secretly placed a $100 bill and an unabashed message of positivity in a Nova Scotia park has delighted and intrigued the town's residents.

    Mysterious $100 Bill, Life-affirming Note Delights Nova Scotia Town

    Cool Weather Calms Wildfire North Of Vancouver, But Traffic Still Disrupted

    Cool Weather Calms Wildfire North Of Vancouver, But Traffic Still Disrupted
    The fire along Highway 99, the Sea-to-Sky corridor, broke out early Sunday morning on a steep, rocky slope between Horseshoe Bay and Lions Bay.

    Cool Weather Calms Wildfire North Of Vancouver, But Traffic Still Disrupted

    Witnesses Sought In Brampton Homicide Of 20-Year-Old Gurjot Dhaliwal

    Investigators believe there are witnesses that have not had the opportunity to speak with officers about this incident.

    Witnesses Sought In Brampton Homicide Of 20-Year-Old Gurjot Dhaliwal