The two street gang members who saw their sentences for having killed an innocent man reduced by the Quebec Court of Appeal last week actually left federal penitentiaries long before the decision landed.
On Friday, the appellate court decided to reduce the sentences of Evens Belleville, 34, and John Tshiamala, 32, received in 2014, after having been convicted of manslaughter, by three years. Both men were convicted of having taken part in the tragic death of Raymond Ellis, a 25-year-old Montreal businessman who was enjoying a night out on Oct. 23, 2005, with two friends at an after-hours club when he was mistaken for someone else.
A group of 30 members and associates of a Montreal street gang were inside the club at the same time and were mourning the death of Passius Rydewood, a fellow gang member who had been murdered a month before. They somehow mistook Ellis for a rival gang member who they believed had killed Rydewood and attacked him. The Dawson College graduate was beaten and stabbed 11 times.
Tshiamala and Belleville were among a group of seven people who were charged in the case and, following a jury trial, they were convicted of manslaughter. They were sentenced respectively to 15- and 14-year prison terms. When the time they had served awaiting their trial was factored into their sentences, they each had less than five years left to serve.
The Quebec Court of Appeal reduced the overall sentences of both men by three years after ruling that the judge who delivered the sentence, Justice Michael Stober, used their statuses in Canada as an aggravating factor in determining the prison terms. In his decision, Stober wrote that Belleville and Tshiamala became criminals even though their families were welcomed to Canada “with open arms” and benefitted from things like free education and health care. Tshiamala was a Congolese political refugee and Belleville’s family arrived here from Haiti.
Decisions made by the Parole Board of Canada, obtained this week by the Montreal Gazette, reveal that both men had been released from penitentiaries long before the Quebec Court of Appeal released its decision on Friday.
Tshiamala was left with a prison term of four years and seven months when he was sentenced in 2014. He reached his statutory release date, the two-thirds mark of a sentence, in 2017. Offenders in federal penitentiaries in Canada automatically qualify for such releases if they haven’t been granted parole previously. In Tshiamala’s case, it appears he never applied for parole. The board was left to impose conditions on his release in a decision made on March 27, 2017.
The written summary of the decision notes that Tshiamala is still a member of a Blues-affiliated street gang. It also mentions that, because he is not Canadian citizen, he was facing the possibility of being deported when he was released.
Belleville was left with a prison term of three years and five months when he was sentenced in 2014, so his sentence actually expired before it was reduced. He reached his statutory release date two years ago. The parole board’s decision to also impose conditions on his release mentions that he never became a Canadian citizen after being granted permanent resident status in 1999. The written summary of his decision alleges there is “little doubt” he remained an associate of a Blues-affiliated gang while he was behind bars.
According to Federal Court records, Belleville was ordered to be deported on July 28, 2016, but he appealed the decision. It was impossible for the Montreal Gazette to determine on Tuesday if either man has actually been removed from Canada. A spokesperson for Canada Border Services Agency wrote in an email that: “It is not a practice of the CBSA to confirm or deny whether an individual has been removed from Canada.”