Pharmacist Shaun Wiebe leaves the Vernon Courthouse in this June 2023 photo.

(BEN BULMER / iNFOnews.ca)

A Vernon pharmacist who killed his girlfriend by repetitively smashing her head into the floor, has been released on day parole after one year in prison.

The Parole Board of Canada released Shaun Wiebe June 27, granting him day release to live in a residential facility somewhere in the Greater Victoria area.

Wiebe's release comes only 12 months after being sentenced in June 2023 to four years jail for the manslaughter death of his partner, Heather Barker, who was 37 years old when she died in 2018.

The Parole Board's move has upset the victim's family and friends who oppose any form of release, the decision says.

Wiebe does have conditions on his release that he abstains from alcohol and drugs and doesn't use steroids – which he was using when he killed Barker. He also has to take counselling courses.

What Wiebe will do while on parole isn't known but the decision says he's contacted the pharmacist regulator and a hearing will be held to see if he can get his licence back. If not, he said he'll work towards being an electrician.

The case dates back to 2018 when Wiebe was living with Barker in the upmarket Vernon neighbourhood, The Rise. 

He found narcotics missing from the pharmacy safe and he accused Barker of taking them, grabbing her purse and pushing her to the floor.

“You're going to end up killing me," Barker told him.

When he noticed Barker wasn't breathing properly he called his sister and said he couldn’t wake her up. 

It took several years for Wiebe to be charged in connection with Barker's death, but three years after she died, the pharmacist admitted to an undercover police officer that he'd grabbed her and thrown her to the ground, jumped on her, and repeatedly struck her head on the floor.

The parole board decision said Wiebe didn't follow the official version of events that underpinned his plea deal and four-year sentence. A sentence the judge described as on the "lower level" but was accepted in part because his drunken confession to the undercover cop may not have been enough for a conviction had the case gone to trial.

Wiebe said he didn’t accept this version of events because he was intimidated and afraid of the undercover cops. He says he pushed her and she fell and hit her head, and denied any other violence against her.

In court, Barker's daughter had said she'd laid next to her mother in the hospital, and her body was covered in bruises from head to toe.

The decision says Wiebe did accept responsibility for killing Baker and understood her family was upset at the length of his sentence.

The parole board said he was at low risk of committing a crime but assessed his risk of intimate partner violence as high.

And the 46-year-old does have a history of violence against women.

"In 2005, a charge for assault against your first wife was not approved. The relationship with your second wife was quite tumultuous and you were convicted of assault in 2013," the decision reads.

Two years after killing Barker, Wiebe entered another relationship and got married.

"You were arrested for assault and mischief in June 2020. (Your third wife) reported that you had urinated on her clothes, thrown her small dog and slammed her into a fridge," the Parole Board said. The charges were later stayed.

The Parole Board said Wiebe "minimized and compartmentalized" his use of violence when asked about intimate partner violence.

"You disagreed with the suggestion that you were controlling in relationships. The Board asked you several times why you were violent and you said you were unable to manage harmful emotions and not thinking about the consequences of your actions. You denied that any of the assaults consisted of "beatings" and you said each one was unique," the decision reads.

Wiebe will now be on day-release parole until it is assessed again in six months.

— This story was corrected at 4:10 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024, to state that Wiebe's third wife had reported that he'd "urinated on her clothes, thrown her small dog and slammed her into a fridge," not his second wife.

To contact a reporter for this story, email Ben Bulmer or call (250) 309-5230 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.

We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above. SUBSCRIBE to our awesome newsletter here.

News from © iNFOnews, 2024