More than seven years after they killed a Carcross hotel owner, two Yukoners have been sentenced for the second time.

Dean Boucher and Mark Lange appeared in Yukon Supreme Court Wednesday afternoon.

Late last year, both pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the death of Robert Olson.

They beat the hotelier until he was unconscious and later died before dumping his body in the Wolf Creek subdivision of Whitehorse on Christmas Eve 2004.

Boucher, who admits to inflicting the final blows in the attack, was sentenced by Justice Ron Veale to 12 years in a federal prison.

Lange received a sentence of nine years and four months.

With credit for the time they have already served, Boucher has slightly less that three years left on his sentence.

Lange will be released from the Whitehorse Correctional Centre in about three months. He will be on probation for 15 months after that.

In the early-morning hours of Dec. 24, 2004, Boucher got into an argument with Olson inside the Caribou Hotel over money for the purchase of narcotics.

Olson was struck 15 times by Boucher and Lange: twice to his back, once to his neck, five times to his scalp, and seven times to his face.

The blows caused bruising to his face and fractured his nose, right cheek, right jaw and the bones around his right eye.

Boucher and Lange then moved the unconscious Olson to the back of his own truck and began driving toward Whitehorse.

After about 20 minutes, they realized Olson had died and dumped his body into a ditch.

The pair were initially convicted of second-degree murder on June 9, 2006. In August of that year, both were sentenced to life behind bars.

Boucher was given no chance of parole for 15 years, while Lange would have to wait at least a decade.

On May 17, 2011, the Yukon Court of Appeal overturned both convictions.

Instead of a new trial, the men made deals with Crown prosecutors and pleaded guilty to manslaughter last November.

As part of that agreement, Boucher and Lange were each assessed for a possible dangerous offender or a long-term offender status.

However, in assessments completed in January, Dr. Shabehram Lohrasbe found that both men were now a "low to moderate” risk to reoffend.

"He reported that in December 2004, Mr. Boucher was a man firmly entrenched in an anti-social and criminal lifestyle that included violence. At that time, Mr. Boucher undoubtedly represented an on-going high risk for violence,” Veale said.

"However, Dr. Lohrasbe has concluded that, since then, Mr. Boucher has engaged in a range of therapeutic programs, established mentoring relationships with elders, incorporated cultural and spiritual practices into his self-concept, and remained abstinent from alcohol and drugs.

Given these steps, he can no longer be viewed as presenting a high risk for violence.”

Lohrasbe does qualify his opinion, saying Boucher still has to prove he can maintain these changes outside prison.

As for Lange, the doctor said that in December 2004, he was part of a culture of social deviance and substance abuse.

"However, he has since taken advantage of treatment programs and no longer presents with overt features of anti-social personality disorder. He has been alcohol- and drug-free for seven years and is motivated to lead a lawful lifestyle,” Veale said.

"Dr. Lohrasbe says that there is no longer a high risk of Mr. Lange reoffending and is of the opinion that he can be monitored and supervised in the community.”

Boucher was born in Lac Labiche, Alta.

His father was a bootlegger who had a serious substance addiction and was physically violent.

As a child, Boucher tried to protect his mother in these circumstances, the judge said.

The 39-year-old was also sexually abused as a young child and later as a boy in Carcross.

His mother was addicted to alcohol and drugs until he was about 12 years old.

For most of his childhood and teenaged years, Boucher alternated between the Yukon and Alberta, the court heard

As a teenager, he began selling drugs at school.

"Once he left school after Grade 10, he entered into the drug trade, first as a drug runner and eventually as a drug dealer and certainly also as a drug consumer. Eventually, he was selling drugs to feed his own addiction,” the judge said.

Boucher has spent a large portion of his life in jail. His criminal record includes multiple drug convictions, as well as an assault and sexual assault conviction.

Lange, 36, was adopted out of foster care by a caucasian family at a young age. His biological mother is a part of the First Nation of Na-Cho Nyak Dun. This led him to struggles with his identity, Veale said.

In 1999, when Lange was in jail in Whitehorse, he learned who his biological family was.

He returned to Mayo to meet them.

While he has formed some positive relationships with this family, his relationship with his biological mother has not worked out, the judge said.

Like Boucher, Lange has a criminal record which includes a drug-related conviction.

His criminal record starts in 1990, when, at 14, he was convicted of assault with a weapon, a BB gun.

He also has convictions including assault causing bodily harm, assault and multiple convictions for breaking and entering.

Both men have maintained that they are now different people than they were when they killed Olson.

"In the past, I let my own bullshit get in the way. I'm tired of drinking and I'm tired of doing time,” Lange told Lohrasbe in his report.

"[I] know that people have no reasons to trust me yet; I haven't proved myself out there. But I am self-aware and I make mental notes.

"I am very aware that I can never drink again. I know I can't control my drinking once I start. If I drink again, I may as well be dead.”

At both sentencings, Veale made note of a victim impact statement written in 2006 by Olson's sister Lorraine (see complete statement, this page).

It reads in part:

"The two men responsible should be prevented from ever harming anyone again.

"More than that, they should learn the priceless worth of each human life, including their own, and change themselves.

"A long incarceration is probably necessary. And counselling. And spiritual growth and understanding. And beyond that, maybe some kind of miracle.”

The judge ordered that copies of the men's sentences be sent to Lorraine Olson.

"In determining a just sentence, it should also be noted that the hope and incredible understanding expressed by Mr. Olson's sister in her victim impact statement may have been partially answered by the remarkable change in Mr. Boucher's life,” the judge said at Boucher's sentencing.

"We can all hope that with support and treatment this new attitude will continue for the rest of his life.”