Etienne Jacobish should spend at least 12 years in jail for 'bold' Natuashish murder, lawyers say

Etienne Jacobish could spend at least the next 12 years behind bars for shooting a Natuashish man to death with a 12-gauge shotgun.

Jacobish pleaded guilty to second-degree murder last year, and appeared in a Happy Valley-Goose Bay courtroom on Tuesday to hear submissions on his sentence.

Jacobish had previously been charged with first-degree murder, but pleaded guilty to the lesser charge. A second-degree murder charge carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison, with a minimum of 10 years until a convicted person can be considered for parole.

The prosecutor and Jacobish's defence lawyer jointly asked Justice Stacy Ryan for a parole ineligibility period of 12 years.

Jacobish and the victim were both members of Mushuau Innu First Nation and residents of Natuashish and were known to one another, according to an agreed statement of facts presented Tuesday.

The statement says investigators couldn't uncover a concrete motive for the murder, but revealed that Jacobish believed that the victim was stealing from him. On multiple occasions before the shooting, Jacobish asked the victim not to enter his home.  

On Jan. 3, 2021, Jacobish fired three shots from the porch of his Natuashish residence at a man on the street. Shortly after, a community member flagged down a RCMP patrol officer who was leaving the parking lot of the community clinic near the site of the shooting.

The officer saw the victim lying on the road and thought he had been hit by a vehicle, but then noticed bird shot and shotgun wads, the statement said.

The officer, with the help of the person who had waved him down, brought the victim to the community clinic in the pan of the officer's truck, where the man was later declared dead by clinic staff. An autopsy performed on the victim later revealed the cause of death to be gunshot wounds to the head, neck and back.

Shortly after the shooting, Jacobish went to the RCMP detachment to declare his guilt. "It was me," Jacobish told police. "I shot him."

Jacobish later identified himself and said, "Lock me up, lock me up, I was scared," and placed his hands behind his back. 

Jacobish gave RCMP permission to enter his home, where they retrieved the weapon.

Jacobish had previously received a 10-year firearm prohibition in 2011, which was still in effect at the time of the fatal shooting. The prohibition stemmed from an incident in Natuashish where Jacobish fired shots at a police vehicle.

The court also heard about a Gladue report from 2014 which Crown prosecutor Jennifer Standen called an "important resource."