A detention review for Ryan Crossley, the young man who killed Port Coquitlam's Jesse Penner in 2006, will be held next week. But Penner's father does not believe his release is imminent.
Gord Penner said he is more concerned about Dec. 18, when Crossley's six-year sentence comes to an end and Corrections Canada is no longer able to keep him in custody.
"They can't hold him indefinitely," he said. "I know it is coming. They are getting me ready for it."
After last year's detention review, the Parole Board of Canada said Crossley would not be let out early because he committed numerous violent acts while behind bars. The board noted that in his five years in jail, the 22-year-old has yet to complete any programming to address his propensity for violence or his substance abuse issues.
"You continue to endanger the safety of others, on occasion spontaneously but often with some level of pre-planning, and frequently involving the use of weapons," the board said in its reasons for decision. "You do not display a genuine remorse for the victims and clearly hold a personal belief that accepts and endorses violence."
After his statutory release this winter, Crossley will be free and neither the parole board nor the Correctional Service of Canada will have any authority over him. The lack of supervision while Crossley re-enters society has Penner fearing the worst.
"Here we are getting to ready to release him so he can kill again," Penner said. "They know damn well what he is going to do. If someone else gets hurt by this guy, I'm going to hate to say, 'I told you so.'"
Jesse Penner was trying to break up a fight in 2006 when he was stabbed multiple times by Crossley; he was taken to hospital but later died from his wounds.
Gord Penner points out that Crossley, who was 16 at the time of his conviction, was on supervised release awaiting sentencing - with conditions that he not possess a weapon and he obey a curfew - for another offence.
"Why would they let him out?" he said. "They let him out once and he killed. He was on bail when he murdered my son."
Crossley was initially eligible for automatic release in October 2010 after serving two thirds of his six-year sentence. But due to his behaviour behind bars, the parole board decided to use a legal provision that allows it to keep a prisoner incarcerated beyond his automatic release date. A second release date was scheduled for June 18 but six months was added to his sentence for violence behind bars.
Spokespeople for Corrections Canada and the Parole Board of Canada told The Tri-City News that they would not comment on crimes carried out by Crossley while behind bars.
