Member of Parliament Dan Albas used his MP report to speak out against the seven year sentence given to Tyler Jack Newton for killing Caesar Rosales.

(ADAM PROSKIW / iNFOnews.ca)

KELOWNA - A local MP is urging for an immediate appeal of the seven-year sentence given to the Kelowna man who admits to stabbing an innocent man to death on a city bus two years ago.

In his most recent MP report, Dan Albas calls the sentence imposed by Justice Heather Holmes 'a slap in the face and an injustice to the memory of a loved one'. 

Caesar Rosales, 57, was riding a bus home from work on Oct. 30, 2014, when Tyler Jack Newton, high on methamphetamines and heroin, stabbed him in the neck from behind. He died before paramedics could arrive. Newton was arrested the following day and was found guilty of manslaughter. He was sentenced last week.

“In this case I believe that there is adequate evidence that due to the serious and violent nature of this crime, both in terms of public safety and interest, that the Crown should appeal this decision immediately,” he writes. “In my view it is important to publicly speak out against these disturbing acts of random violence in the hopes that an appeal will be submitted.”

Tyler Jack Newton was sentenced to seven years in prison for killing Caesar Rosales in 2014.

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Seven years for manslaughter is on the high end of a sentence for most manslaughter cases, but on the low end for second degree murder, a charge Newton avoided by pleading guilty to the lesser of the two. Crown lawyer Colin Forsyth agreed to the plea deal, a trial was avoided, and with time already served, Newton will be free in four and a half years.

“Recently many citizens have contacted me to express outrage that a man who committed a brutal and senseless act of unprovoked murder on a Kelowna City bus will again be free to roam the streets in just four and a half years,” Albas writes. “I am hopeful that local MLAs will also denounce this act and support an appeal,”

Imediately after Holmes gave her sentence, Rosales' brother Darwin, who traveled from the Philippines to speak for the family, asked for an appeal and implied the Canadian justice system had failed.

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