Warning: This story deals with subjects that might be triggering for some readers.
A woman was sentenced to five years in jail, on May 31, for killing her friend with a wine bottle in a Vernon hotel room in 2020.
Paige Howse was handed the sentence in BC Supreme Court in Vernon, more than four years after she bludgeoned 33-year-old Kelowna woman Alishia Lemp to death at the Canada Best Value Inn and Suites on 32nd Street.
Justice Sheri Ann Donegan imposed a jail sentence of five years, which was between the seven to nine years the Crown was seeking and the four years the defence was calling for.
However, because Howse is credited with 1,220 days already served in custody, she’ll only be behind bars for an additional 605 days, or roughly 20 months.
The 30-year-old was originally charged with second-degree murder after killing Lemp on Feb. 27, 2020, but she pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter last September.
Justice Donegan pointed out that the Crown and defence counsel took “very different positions” on the appropriate sentencing range, based in part on the role that self-defence may have played in the killing. Donegan said a doctor who assessed Howse found it “difficult to surmise” whether self defence was a factor in the incident.
Donegan spent considerable time going over Howse’s circumstances, including the fact she is Indigenous and her grandparents went to residential schools. She was also recently diagnosed with schizophrenia and has had periods of psychosis, had a “significant history” of substance abuse issues dating back to when she was 11 years old, and experienced homelessness at various points in her life. The justice also said there was a “likelihood” that Howse had been sexually abused in her youth, adding her parents had also struggled with substance abuse.
Early in the sentencing hearing, Donegan gave Howse the chance to read a statement she had prepared.
“I want to apologize to Alishia’s family and the courts for my role in Alishia’s murder. I failed to stop hitting Alishia causing her death, and I also failed to call 911 … my choices and actions and non-actions on the day and days after Alishia’s murder were on me. And, while I cannot change these choices they remind me to be thankful for my life … something I took away from Alishia and her family,” Howse told the court, which included several of Lemp’s family members in the gallery.
Donegan began delivering her decision by echoing words Howse had spoken in her prepared statement minutes earlier: “A mother is without her her daughter, a sister without her sister, and a family without a loved one. These words are used to describe the loss and tragic death of Alishia Lemp. They are not my words, they are the words of Paige Howse, the person who took her life.”
The justice said many of the events before, during and after the killing will never be known, but while the two women entered the hotel room that night, only one came out alive.
The court heard that Howse and Lemp were friends and both worked in the sex trade industry. Lemp had been invited to stay and work with Howse out of room 206 at the hotel.
On the night of Feb. 26, the two went on an outing to Lake City Casino. Lemp had purchased a 1.5-litre bottle of wine, and it was this wine bottle that is believed to have been used to kill her.
Howse and Lemp returned to the hotel from the casino in the late hours of Feb. 26. As the two got out of a taxi, Howse was noted to have appeared agitated. Lemp, who struggled with alcohol use, had had a few drinks at the casino.
Other guests at the hotel had testified that they heard yelling and arguing coming from the hotel room in the early morning hours of Feb. 27. One guest said he heard banging sounds that lasted about three hours.
During the trial, the court heard that Howse struck Lemp with the wine bottle multiple times, causing her death. An autopsy found Lemp had died from blunt force trauma to her head.
Donegan noted Howse’s failure to call 911 after beating Lemp as an aggravating factor, as well as the fact that she tried to hide Lemp’s body by dragging it into the hotel bathroom and that she left her body in the hotel room and fled the city 24 hours after the killing.
As mitigating factors, Donegan noted Howse’s “genuine” remorse, her guilty plea last fall that demonstrated she acknowledged what she did and spared court resources, her schizophrenia, the fact she had no criminal record at the time of the offence, and the fact that she has remained substance-free while incarcerated.
At the end of her jail term, Howse will be on a three-year period of probation, conditions for which include having no contact with a number of Lemp’s family members. Crown counsel Margaret Cissell also asked the justice to impose a ban on using or possessing substances, including cannabis and alcohol. Defence lawyer Mark Swartz asked the court not to impose this condition, saying addiction is often “a lifelong journey” and relapses happen. However, Cissell said the condition is necessary because Howse is at a significantly higher risk of reoffending if exposed to substances. Justice Donegan sided with the Crown and imposed the condition.
Donegan noted that Howse has a 12-year-old child who lives with his father in Ontario.
The Indian Residential Schools Crisis Line is available 24 hours a day for anyone experiencing pain or distress as a result of their or others’ residential school experience.
Non-emergency calls to The Indian Residential Schools Survivors Society can be directed to 1-800-721-0066.
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