SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Accused murderer Denecho King reacted angrily in territorial court Wednesday after a judge rejected his lawyer's request for a longer sentence upon pleading guilty to unlawfully escaping custody from North Slave Correctional Centre last summer.

King wanted a longer jail sentence in hopes of triggering a federal penitentiary term down south. He is currently being held in a small unit at the correctional centre with few other inmates - the remainder of whom are set to leave in a week, leaving him essentially in isolation, said his lawyer Jay Bran. The 24-year-old pleaded guilty to the escaping custody charge last week.

Crown prosecutor Alex Godfrey had asked for 12 to 18 months, based on precedents from other cases. But a two-year sentence or longer would allow King to transfer to a federal prison, which King said would be more comfortable for him. Bran told the court that his client has been "extremely restricted" at the jail ever since he escaped.

King told Judge Robert Gorin he wasn't seeking any sympathy but asked for 24 months in prison without any days of credit for time he has already spent in custody.

The judge, however, refused to oblige.

"I cannot impose a sentence that is harsher than that which I think just," Gorin ultimately told King as he delivered an 18-month sentence. "I don't feel that a jail term in the penitentiary range is appropriate."

He also ordered King to submit a DNA sample and pay a $200 victim of crime surcharge. King reacted violently to the sentence, swinging his arm across the courtroom defence table and sending a plastic water cup flying across the room as he tried to march past the prisoner's box with his ankles in shackles.

Two police officers held him back while Judge Robert Gorin left the otherwise silent courtroom following the decision. King then stormed past the officers with clenched fists, kicking the plastic cup and pounding his way through the door to the courtroom's holding cells.

King touched off a four-day manhunt Aug. 10 after climbing onto the correctional centre's roof and then jumping to the ground. He stole a bicycle from a nearby residence and eventually made his way to his mother's house on Sissons Court where he was captured Aug. 13.

Police surrounded the residence with sirens, lights and loudspeakers before executing a search warrant, according to the statement of facts.

During the search, RCMP stated anyone found helping King could be charged for aiding him. RCMP spokesperson Marie York-Condon told Yellowknifer yesterday police have conducted an investigation and there are no charges at this time.

King told the court he decided to escape because he was tired of waiting for a bail review he felt was being neglected.

"My patience ended up running out so my plan succeeded," King said of his escape. "All I wanted was a little freedom."

The 24-year-old had been in jail since early 2015 after he was charged with robbing a taxi driver on Latham Island on Feb. 25 of that year.

King was in jail on the robbery charge when he was charged with murder and attempted murder for a violent attack that left two men badly injured on Dec. 14, 2014. John Wifladt, 39, died that morning but Colin Digness survived after suffering a severe eye injury.

King will face a jury trial for the matter, although a date has yet to be set. In a victim impact statement, Wifladt's mother Alice said when RCMP appeared at her door during King's escape, memories came flooding back from when police told her that her son was dead.

For the four days King was on the lam, she said she couldn't eat, couldn't sleep and was afraid he would take her family hostage.

"I still worry that something will happen and he will escape again," her statement said. Her daughter was seen wrapping her arm around her mother as she wept in the public gallery during the court proceedings.

"People don't understand when your first-born is taken away like this," Wifladt's father, Jack Wifladt, told Yellowknifer following King's sentencing. He said it had been an "emotional" morning.

Wednesday marked the second anniversary of his son's death.

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