![\"Text](\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/a\/assets\/texttospeech.svg\")
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A Calgary murderer wiped away tears as his victim\u2019s 13-year-old child delivered a powerful victim impact statement at his sentencing hearing in court on Thursday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought I would always have him,\u201d said Faith Lyons.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Since Donald Lyons’s violent and unexpected death, \u201cI\u2019ve felt under the water,\u201d said Faith.<\/p>\n
Donald Lyons was fatally shot in December 2023. His girlfriend Amber Beach was also shot, but survived her injuries.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, a jury convicted Paulos Berhe, 30, of second-degree murder and attempted murder.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The crime was described by the prosecution as a drug deal gone wrong.<\/p>\n
On Dec. 18, 2023, Berhe, Lyons and Beach met for what was supposed to be a drug deal. The three were in Lyons’s truck when Berhe shot both from the back seat.<\/p>\n
‘No more hope’<\/p>\n
Lyons\u2019s adult daughter, Sky, also wrote a victim impact statement, in which she spoke of her father\u2019s struggle with addiction. She said she always thought her dad would get more time to beat it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI always thought we\u2019d have more time to reconcile, more time for him to succeed, more time for him to meet his grandchildren,\u201d she wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no more time, no more chances, no more hope.\u201d<\/p>\n
A second-degree murder conviction comes with an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for 10 to 25 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
‘The bad days’<\/p>\n
Prosecutor Peter Mackenzie asked Court of King\u2019s Bench Justice David Labrenz to impose a 14-year ineligibility period, while defence lawyer Allan Fay asked the judge to consider a 10-to-12-year period.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dale Lyons, Donald’s father, also spoke in court. He said he has some days that \u201care not too bad.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
But on the days he sees a red Dodge Ram truck, \u201cthose are the bad days, the meltdown days, so many tears.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no pain or sorrow that is worse than losing a child.\u201d<\/p>\n
‘Forgive me’<\/p>\n
Heather Lyons, Donald’s mother, wrote that her son was her \u201cbest friend, my protector and my caregiver.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing will ever be the same,\u201d she wrote. \u201cI hold tight to the beautiful memories of him \u2026\u00a0I\u2019m here now numb, broken.\u201d<\/p>\n
Berhe was given the chance to address the court and offered an apology \u201cto everybody involved.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI never intended to do it,\u201d he said. \u201cI hope you find it in your heart to forgive me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Justice Labrenz will deliver his sentencing decision in September. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":177806,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[51],"class_list":["post-177805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-calgary","tag-calgary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}