Vernon pharmacist gets plea deal for manslaughter of girlfriend

Almost three years after the girlfriend of Vernon pharmacist Shaun Wiebe was taken off a life support machine he admitted to an undercover RCMP officer that he'd repeatedly smashed her head against the floor.

Today, June 9, at the Vernon courthouse, BC Supreme Court Justice Alison Beames sentenced Shaun Wiebe, 45, to four years in jail, adding that the prison time was at the lower level of sentencing.

Wiebe pleaded guilty last month to manslaughter in the death of his partner, Heather Barker, who was 37-years-old when she died. She was found unresponsive at the couple's home in the upmarket Vernon neighbourhood The Rise in March 2018.

The Justice described Wiebe's violence as "horrific" and "inexcusable" but pointed out that his drunken confession may not have been accepted as evidence had the case gone to trial.

Instead, Wiebe had done a plea deal instead of having a lengthy, complex and uncertain trial. The plea deal netted him a four jail sentence after Crown and defence lawyers presented a joint submission.

The court heard how following Barker's death, Wiebe had moved back to his parent's Saskatchewan farm and had, unbeknownst to him, befriended at least one RCMP officer involved in a "Mr. Big" sting operation.

On two occasions the undercover "friend" had to take Wiebe to hospital because of his drinking. There were more than 90 different scenario's the RCMP had recorded with Wiebe.

He finally admitted to the undercover officer while drunk, that on the night before Barker died he'd grabbed her by the hair and hit her head on the floor.

At the time of Barker's death, Wiebe had found narcotics missing from the pharmacy safe and he'd accused Barker of taking them.

The couple arrived home and began drinking and an argument started about the missing drugs. He asked to see in Barker's purse and he pushed her to the floor.

"How could you do this to my business," he said to her.

He said that he then got off the bed and jumped on top of her.

"Yes. Did I slap her head repeatedly into the ground after I grabbed her off the bed. Yes," he told the undercover officer, "I was enraged."

The pharmacist told the cop that Barker had told him to stop and he did.

"You're going to end up killing me," Barker had said.

He later called his sister in Saskatchewan and told her Barker wasn't breathing properly and he couldn't wake her up. She then stopped breathing and his brother-in-law called 911.

The 911 operator directed Wiebe and he performed CPR on Barker until paramedics arrived.

She was taken to hospital and put on a life support machine.

Several hours later the machine was turned off and Barker died.

In a moving victim impact statement, Barker's 22-year-old daughter told the court how she'd been taken out of school to be told her mom was in the hospital.

"How was it fair that at 16 years old I had to lay next to my mom in a hospital bed her body covered in bruises from head to toe," the daughter said. "I couldn't even say goodbye or tell her how much I loved her because she was brain dead.

"You, Shaun, took her away from us, and left a gapping hole in my life."

The court heard how Wiebe and Barker had started dating in June 2017 and she began working at Wiebe's pharmacy a month later. She moved in with him in August.

Barker had three children and was going through a messy separation. Wiebe too, was also going through litigation with his ex-wife, who had taken his child away.

The court heard how they were both struggling with alcohol addiction, and Wiebe was a heavy user of steroids – a drug known to have side effects that lead to aggression.

Days after Wiebe made the confession to the undercover cop he was arrested and charged with manslaughter and assault causing bodily harm.

The court heard how he'd grown up on a farm near Herbert, Saskatchewan, 50 kilometres east of Swift Current. Both his parent's sat in the courtroom.

He'd been the valedictorian at high school and gone on to study nursing only to then change to pharmacy.

After moving to Vernon he'd owned a pharmacy franchise at Target, and when the company pulled out of Canada it caused financial harm. At the time of Barker's death, he was drinking heavily and using steroids, and facing bankruptcy.

He closed his pharmacy shortly after Barker's death and then went back to his parent's farm.

"You left so much destruction behind and you selflessly didn't get to witness it unfold," Barker's middle daughter told the court. "It seems like it was so easy for you to take her from us, it seems like it was so easier for you to leave her at the hospital and pack up your belonging and flee," the middle daughter said.

"While you were packing to leave Vernon my family was hearing the words she's not going to make it. While you were hiding from your actions we were sitting at her bedside begging her to wake up and say our last goodbye. While you were back home with your family we were unplugging our mom from life support," she said.

"No 15-year-old should have to see her mother lying on a hospital bed with swollen eyes and bruises covering her body. No 15-year-old should have to hear the sound of her mother's heart rate flatlining as she takes her last assisted breath. No 15-year-old should have to hold her mom's cold dead hands ... as the doctors record the time of death."

Barker's parents, her ex-husband, her daughters – the youngest being 16 years old – her former mother-in-law, and two lifelong friends all made victim impact statements to the court.

"I hope you live with the pain of what you have done," the middle daughter said.

"I was only 10 years old," the youngest daughter said. "I hugged her but she was unable to hug me back."

Justice Beams said the daughters were courageous in making their statements to the court and that their mother would be proud of them.

While Wiebe's lawyer said his client wouldn't be making a statement the pharmacist obviously changed his mind.

"I am sorry and I do have regret," Wiebe said while looking at roughly a dozen family and friends in the courtroom.

After time already spent in custody, Wiebe will spend a further three years and five in jail.

"No sentence proposed on Mr. Wiebe would undo the harm caused by his actions... or bring back his victim Heather Barker to her family, nor give them comfort." Justice Beams told the court.

"My sympathies to all involved," were the Justice's final words to the court.

— This story was updated at 4:59 p.m. Friday, June 9, 2023, to add more information from court proceedings.

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