Cranbrook’s Leanne MacFarlane and Jeffrey Taylor were shot in a home that had previously been rented by the killer’s drug-trade rival
A former gangster who shot and killed a Cranbrook couple 15 years ago in a case of mistaken identity has been sentenced to life in prison without a chance of parole for 14 years.
Originally acquitted of the murders in a 2022 trial, Colin Raymond Correia pleaded guilty to second-degree murder after a successful appeal by the Crown led to a second trial being ordered.
In May 2010, Leanne MacFarlane and Jeffrey Taylor were living in a rented home on Highway 3 when two men armed with handguns broke in.
Correia and his accomplice were looking for rival drug dealer Doug Mahon, but he had moved out of the home six months earlier. MacFarlane’s sister-in-law, Lise MacFarlane, and her son, James, lived in a second unit in the house.
In an agreed statement of facts, Correia said his accomplice shot Taylor almost immediately and gestured for Correia to shoot MacFarlane. He fired one shot into her torso and the other man fired several more shots at her, killing her instantly. Taylor later died in hospital.
“The two shooters then went to the adjacent unit and terrorized the occupants there,” said the judge. The other man pointed his gun at Lise MacFarlane’s head and asked, “Where the f— is Doug?” She ran into a spare bedroom and hid then called 911. Her son hid in his own bedroom throughout after seeing the intruders approaching.
“Mr. Correia’s crimes made victims of a large extended family, all of whom were entirely innocent and unsuspecting,” said the judge. The couple “were murdered in the confines of their own home, a place where all individuals have an expectation of safety and security.
“Lise MacFarlane and her son were terrorized by masked and armed intruders in their home.”
The judge said victim impact statements reveal that both mother and son suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder and that MacFarlane struggles with depression and survivor’s guilt. Other family members of the couple, including Leanne MacFarlane’s now 21-year-old daughter, gave impact statements that were “poignant and heart-wrenching.”
Tappen said there is obviously no sentence that can bring back their loved ones or heal the wounds the family continues to suffer. And he noted that murder carries a mandatory life sentence, “the most onerous sentence known to Canadian law.”
By definition, it means offenders like Correia have no guarantee of being released, the judge noted. It’s only if the National Parole Board decides he is no longer a risk to the public that he will get out and his return to jail would be swift should he ever reoffend.
Correia has already served jail time for his pursuit of the rival drug dealer. In 2013, he was sentenced to 12 years in jail for conspiring to murder Mahon sometime between November 2009 and May 2010.
He was granted day parole in 2016, moved to a halfway house in Edmonton, and gradually reintegrated into society. He got a job, reconnected with his two daughters and, after getting full parole in 2017, started a relationship with his current partner, who he knew from Cranbrook.
Having sobered up, he helped his partner get sober as well, adopted her infant son and helped her regain custody of her two older sons. The judge described Correia in those post-prison years as a “devoted family man.”
But in June 2018, he was arrested and charged with the May 2010 mistaken-identity murders. He finished his conspiracy conviction in a Mission jail then was moved to the North Fraser Pretrial Centre in 2019 to await trial. His defence filed extensive evidence of his “exemplary custodial behaviour” in both institutions.
“In short, there is a considerable body of evidence that Mr. Correia has made great strides in his rehabilitation since 2013, both in the prison setting and in the community,” said Tappen. “At this sentencing hearing (he) expressed his remorse for his crimes and I accept that his remorse was genuine.”
Correia was originally found not guilty of MacFarlane and Taylor’s murders after a judge ruled his confession inadmissible, but prosecutors appealed.
“Mr. Correia is 48. Fifteen years have passed since he committed these brutal murders,” said the judge. “He appears to have taken steps to rehabilitate himself in that interval.”
The 14-year minimum for parole eligibility was agreed on by Correia’s defence and the prosecution. Due to time already spent in custody, he will become eligible for parole in about 10 years. He must also submit a DNA sample and is banned from owning weapons for life.