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The family of Taig Savage is facing another difficult development in the case of the 22-year-old Penticton man who was killed five years ago.
“It’s shocking. It’s really shocking,” Taig’s mom Tracey Savage said Monday after learning that two more accused have reached plea agreements in the case.
The developments come just a week and a half after another accused pleaded guilty to manslaughter in a plea deal.
Savage’s lifeless body was found on the track field at Penticton Secondary School in September 2021.
Four people were charged with second-degree murder two years later.
Three of the accused were minors at the time of the killing.
On Sept. 4, one of those accused pleaded guilty to manslaughter as part of a plea agreement.
Now, the other two minors have also reached similar plea deals.
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Tracey Savage said the family feels like there is no justice for Taig.
“I held my granddaughter just recently, and I realized that my son will never meet her,” she said as she tried holding back tears. “It’s not the way we wanted things, but as I learned today, nothing, or most things in life, are not fair and this will never be fair.”
Under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, the maximum sentence for manslaughter is three years, compared to seven years for second-degree murder.
“When it comes to second-degree murder versus manslaughter, the big hurdle for the Crown to prove secondary murder is that they have to prove that the accused actually intended to cause the death of the victim,” said Rob Dhanu, a former criminal crown prosecutor.
Dhanu added that murder cases are extremely complicated, even more so when multiple people are accused of the crime.
“What the Crown has to do they have to prove not only who did what but who intended to do what, Dhanu said. “The Crown may have felt that in this case it was better to go with the bird in hand rather than the two in the bush and plead to a lesser included offense where they get the conviction.”
A publication ban prevents the reporting of the circumstances revealed in court because Isaac Jack, the only adult accused in this case, has yet to be tried.
Jack’s trial is scheduled for this spring, but Tracey Savage wonders if that trial will go forward after the three plea deals.
“I hope that we are not sitting here another year from now in May 2027 when this court case gets rolling with the same expression and same face that I have today,” she said. “It’s a very sad day.”
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