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Michael MacPherson and Tanner Sinclair

Family hears tearful apology from MacPherson

The court must consider that Michael MacPherson

By Chuck Tobin on February 23, 2017

The court must consider that Michael MacPherson was not the aggressor in the fight that led to the stabbing death of Tanner Sinclair, says MacPherson’s defence lawyer

Ray Dieno told Justice Leigh Gower of the Yukon Supreme Court Wednesday the evidence in fact suggests it was Sinclair who was the aggressor and MacPherson was responding to that aggression when a fight between the two broke out.

“It is my respectful submission when you look at all the circumstances, it was Sinclair who wanted this confrontation,” Dieno said of the backyard fight in July 2014 at around midnight, after there had been some drinking going on.

MacPherson pleaded guilty Feb. 1 to manslaughter, weeks before he was to go on trial next month for second-degree murder.

MacPherson has sat quietly and motionless during the last two days of sentencing submissions.

When he stood before the court and Sinclair’s family Wednesday afternoon to read his apology to the family, he was choked with emotion. He sobbed quietly for a short time even after sitting down.

“To the Sinclair family and the court, not a day goes by that I do not wish this could all be changed.... I know what it is to lose a family member, and I am so sorry my actions led to Tanner’s death.”

MacPherson said he has spent countless hours and days and years trying to figure out how it happened, and what he must do to make sure it will never happen again.

He works every day to heal himself, he said.

“I need you to know that I never intended for any of this to happen.”

Sinclair died from stab wounds inflicted by MacPherson during a backyard fight at a Copper Ridge home. Some five hours later, he was taken off life support at Whitehorse General Hospital.

Sinclair’s mother, father and sister have travelled to Whitehorse to deliver victim impact statements at this week’s sentencing hearing.

There were three other impact statements, including the one delivered by his widow, Whitney Sandulak. They all told of the emotional pain and the deep loss they feel.

Whitney is the mother of Sinclair’s two young daughters, one of whom was born two months after Sinclair’s death. She told of how she agreed to have her spouse taken off life support after conferring with the doctors.

Crown prosecutor Eric Marcoux told the court he is seeking a sentence of eight to 10 years, which is on the high end for manslaughter.

The stabbing was violent, and MacPherson has two previous convictions in 2001 and 2007, for assault with a weapon, one of which resulted in a two-year jail term, he told the court.

Dieno, on the other hand, is seeking a sentence of four years, minus 18 months’ credit for the 12 months MacPherson has already served in jail.

Manslaughter can range from near-murder to near-accident, he told the court.

Dieno introduced case law of several examples of sentences for manslaughter, such as the case where a fight broke out and the accused punched the victim once but the victim fell backwards, hit his head and died. The sentence was two years.

Under the circumstances, he argued, MacPherson should be entitled to a sentence on the lower end.

At the close of submissions yesterday afternoon, Justice Gower said he would deliver the sentence at 3 p.m. today.

Dieno said there is evidence a fight broke out, but there is no evidence whatsoever about how it progressed, nor what may have prompted MacPherson to use a hunting-type knife that had been left on the patio table earlier in the day.

Perhaps, he said, Sinclair had been choking MacPherson.

There is just no evidence about how the fight proceeded but there is evidence it was Sinclair who was the aggressor while he and MacPherson were sitting around the patio table with two other people, the defence lawyer insisted.

An agreed statement of facts presented to the court on the day of the guilty plea noted there had been ongoing tension between Sinclair and MacPherson over a truck MacPherson had obtained from Sinclair in a three-way swap.

“By all accounts, everything seemed to be going well until Mr. MacPherson began making comments about the truck that Mr. Sinclair sold him,” reads the agreed statement of facts regarding the atmosphere around the patio table.

“Mr. Sinclair made a remark to the effect that he should just knock Mr. MacPherson out, to which Mr. MacPherson replied, ‘Just do it.’”

The fight ensued, and one of the others heard Sinclair being stabbed, says the agreed statement of facts.

She then heard Sinclair say “enough,’ and ‘he is stabbing me’ as Mr. MacPherson was swinging his arms with what was thought to be a knife in his hand. Ms. Johns never saw a knife, but described the sound of a blade hitting flesh,” says the statement of facts.

The statement explains how MacPherson was attending a barbecue earlier in the day at the home of Kory Basaraba and Faye Johns, friends he’d known for years.

He stayed with the couple for a time when moved to Whitehorse in the spring of 2014 to get away from the drug scene in which he lived in B.C.

Later in the evening, Basaraba and MacPherson decided to go to The Ridge pub, and MacPherson dropped him off.

Basaraba called Sinclair, who joined him at the pub, and MacPherson returned.

Footage from the security camera overlooking the bar showed everything seemed to be going fine among the three, though there was no sound.

Security footage from the parking lot a few minutes later showed what appeared to be aggression from Sinclair toward MacPherson, Gower noted out loud while viewing the footage in court.

The defence lawyer emphasized the footage also shows MacPherson running away to get into a vehicle driven by his friend. It was MacPherson, Dieno suggested, who wanted to leave the confrontational situation, and return to Basaraba’s home.

A short time later, Johns was called and was told Basaraba and Sinclair would be returning to the home, says the agreed statement of facts.

A neighbour said she was outside in her front yard and witnessed what appeared to be Sinclair trying to calm down MacPherson, though she did not hear what was being said.

Sometime later, at around midnight, Sinclair and MacPherson were sitting around the patio table with a couple of others when the fight broke out.

Dieno asked the court if MacPherson was supposed to leave his friend’s home just because Sinclair had arrived.

He told the court there is no evidence that MacPherson was planning to use the knife on Sinclair. It’s not as though he’d brought it with him, he said.

Following the fight, MacPherson fled the scene and was on the run for 10 days before turning himself in to police.

He was released on $25,000 bail and ordered to reside at a rehabilitation centre in B.C.

MacPherson was returned to jail early last month after he was found to be in possession of an opioid, and a bottle of clean urine.

Dieno said but for that slip-up, and slip-ups can expected in the world of drug addiction and rehabilitation, MacPherson’s record during his 666 days at the rehabilitation centre has been exemplary.

He has taken all the self-improvement courses and opportunities available to him, opportunities that accused people don’t normally engage in until after sentencing.

MacPherson’s life has been hard, and he never knew his natural father, Dieno told the court.

After his younger brother was involved in a horrific traffic accident, a brother he was very close to, it was MacPherson who was left to decide to take him off life support, as his mom and step dad were too distraught.

One of his client’s previous convictions for assault with a weapon occurred when he was defending his brother, Dieno told the court.

He quite matter-of-factly blamed the media for painting MacPherson as a psycho-killer.

And the victim impact statements from the family amounted to the same, he said.

Dieno recalled how the father, Brent Sinclair, told the court his son had told him a couple of weeks before the incident that MacPherson had twice threatened to kill him.

(The comments were later stricken from the court record, as there was no evidence before the court to support the allegation.)

The defence lawyer suggested the remarks from the father were pure fabrication, and nothing more than an attempt to further sully MacPherson.

Is the court, the defence lawyer asked, to believe this strapping young man who climbed mountains and packed down mountain sheep would run to his father with concerns that MacPherson had threatened him?

Dieno said that was unbelievable, as Sinclair was the type of man who would handle things himself.

The defence lawyer told the court the Crown’s suggestion that less weight should be given to the guilty plea because it came after the preliminary hearing, and on the eve of the trial, was groundless.

In fact, Dieno insisted, MacPherson had offered to plead guilty to manslaughter months and months ago.

The Crown prosecutor quickly interrupted, telling the court Dieno’s recollection of events was not the same as his, and if that was indeed his position, he should introduce evidence to support it.

Dieno told the court MacPherson had never intended to kill Sinclair, and the Crown knows that, or it would be going to trial on a charge of second-degree murder.

By all accounts from the rehabilitation centre, MacPherson has been productive in his rehabilitation and does not pose a threat to society, Dieno told the court.

Comments (10)

Up 0 Down 0

Sister of Tanner Sinclair on Feb 23, 2021 at 10:46 am

It's interesting reading comments 2 years after the sentencing. People that knew this guy prior to all this. He sounds like he's been on the wrong path for a long time. Hopefully, his time inside did you some good and he decided it's time to be a better human. Found god or something, cause if he didn't sit there every day and think about the blood he spilt, he's not human.

Up 2 Down 0

Honest on Apr 14, 2020 at 7:12 am

Mike is a coward and I’m not surprised that when he was getting his ass beat he grabbed a knife to stab his way out. He acts harder than he is and can’t do anything fairly. The only sadness he feels is because of the fact he got caught. He will forever be a narcissist that is incapable of any type of normalcy. You should have kept the goof locked up.

Up 3 Down 0

asdf1234 on Dec 17, 2019 at 12:51 pm

I grew up in the same town as Mike. He was known as Mike Proud back then. He had no moral compass and was quite simply a bad person.
Mike, if you're reading this, I hope you one day make up for all the things you have done to cause others pain and grief.

Up 14 Down 2

Salar on Feb 25, 2017 at 9:57 am

Always regret the things we do that are regrettable....in this case he violently assaults folks but he never meant for those things to happen...the law is there to deal with these loser aholes but instead it just insults the victims and their families....dont care to ever meet Mr MacPherson....loser

Up 33 Down 2

So sad on Feb 23, 2017 at 7:08 pm

Front page headline "victim called catalyst". Just because the accused lawyer said something happened, does not mean it did. He's trying to reduce his client's sentence, trying to make it seem less his fault. None of those details have been entered into evidence in a trial, they have not been proven. This man murdered someone. He stabbed him, multiple times. He committed a murder. No one else.

My condolences to Tanner Sinclair's family. I have never met you and didn't know Tanner, but despite what the headline insinuates, he didn't deserve to die. I hope you can find ways to hang on to the good memories of your son/brother/husband.

Up 25 Down 1

Charles on Feb 23, 2017 at 6:47 pm

A lot of smoke & mirrors from defense. 'He told the court there is no evidence that MacPherson was planning to use the knife on Sinclair.' That just implies it was not premeditated, so not M1. No explanation of how the knife magically arrived in his hand or why he stabbed Tanner, not once but repeatedly. MacPherson sounds to me as though he has a volatile temper and not someone I would feel comfortable around.

Up 25 Down 4

Spectrum on Feb 23, 2017 at 5:19 pm

Reading this article, I didn't get that the defense was using his brothers death to justify the murder of Sinclair. It was merely explaining his past assault. This guy clearly has mental health/addiction issues, and it is probably best if he is put away for a long time before he hurts someone else. On the other hand, I do feel sorry for him. While it may be presumptuous, I think if the outcome was the other way around and Macpherson died as a result of the fight instead of Sinclair there might be a lot less sympathy. Sinclair mattered, Macpherson doesn't. Sinclair died because of poor decisions made by Macpherson AND Sinclair himself. He could have and should have just walked away, especially with a kid and another on the way. This tragedy should be used as a lesson-it's just not worth it. It's never worth it.

Up 53 Down 8

June Jackson on Feb 23, 2017 at 4:36 pm

There are so many holes in the defence it looks like swiss cheese..but, for me the one telling point is.. MacPherson stabbed Mr. Sinclair in the back.. indicates to me that Mr. Sinclair was trying to get away. In any case, stabbing someone 5 times is a far cry from an argument. Mr. MacPherson should be thanking his lucky stars that I am not the one that gets to determine his fate. I feel pretty strongly about murderers.

Up 26 Down 16

Yukon Hunter on Feb 23, 2017 at 2:40 pm

"He lost a brother and they use that in his defense as why he would kill another person"
Caley, please show where the defense stated that the reason McPherson killed Sinclair was because his brother was killed.

Up 59 Down 13

Caley on Feb 23, 2017 at 2:11 pm

He lost a brother and they use that in his defense as why he would kill another person? Because he has had a hard life? How does that justify taking aggression to the next level and killing someone. No sympathy for him whatsoever, he is a burden to society as Brent said.

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