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'Is there even a reason?,' questions, grief linger as Denecho King awaits fate

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Brendan Burke/NNSL photo. Jack Wifladt displays a collage of photos of his son John Wifladt, slain in 2014 by Denecho King, outside the Yellowknife courthouse Friday. When John died, a "bond that should never be broken," was broken, wrote Jack in one of the many victim impact statements read in court. Nov. 16, 2018.

Heather Poluk looks for her big brother John Wifladt “everywhere.”

In the many books he left behind, she finds him on earmarked pages. Why was it creased? What piqued his interest? She tries to guess.

“It makes me feel close to him again,” said Poluk, her voice trembling as she read a victim impact statement in a packed Yellowknife courtroom on Friday.

“I can hear him.”

Sitting straight and still in a neatly-worn dress shirt feet away from Poluk was 26-year-old Denecho King, her brother's killer.

In the early hours of Dec. 14, 2014, Wifladt and his best friend Colin Digness went back to Digness's Sundridge Place Apartments unit after a night out in the city. King, then 22, entered the apartment. In a brutal and unprovoked attack, he used two ornamental swords – kept in Digness's apartment – to deal devastating blows to the two defenceless friends.

Wifladt died, succumbing to the severe wounds. Digness barely survived the attack, and was left with lasting physical and emotional scars.

The two childhood friends were complete strangers to King.

On that day, wrote John's father Jack Wifladt in a victim impact statement, a “bond that should never be broken,” was broken.

“I pray to God, but God doesn't answer,” read Jack's statement, which detailed “unbearable days” without his son – without their talks about music and football.

“Why could it not be me in his place?” he asked.

King was convicted of second-degree murder and aggravated assault in July. He has never admitted guilt for the deadly attack, and a motive for the rampage has never been established.

“Is there even a reason?” asked John's younger sister, Michelle Wifladt, reading from one of 10 victim impact statements submitted during Friday's sentencing hearing. “So far I haven't heard one.”

“It was a sudden and brutal murder. There is no motive. There is no rationale or logic, no explanation other than King's explosive violence,” said Crown prosecutor Jill Andrews. “Violence for the sake of violence.”

For the murder of Wifladt, Andrews called for a life sentence with no chance of parole for 17 years – seven more years than the mandatory minimum.

For King’s aggravated assault conviction, the Crown recommended a 10-year sentence, to be served concurrently.

In making the recommendation, Andrews pointed to a number of aggravating factors – circumstances of an offence that increase the severity of the crime – related to the deadly attack.

King, Andrews said, committed the “random” and “callous” attack just 25 days after his release from prison for attacking a man with a machete.

He was on probation when he murdered Wifladt and severely injured Digness.

King “viciously” stabbed two people he didn't know in an impulsive “act of explosive violence,” she said.

“(Wifladt and Digness) were powerless to King's rage and weapons,” said Andrews.

King's use of those weapons, she said, was also aggravating, she asserted.

Andrews reminded the court that in the hours leading up to the murder, King committed three violent outbursts – punching a window, throwing a chair, and assaulting a woman in a cab. After the attack, “he bragged about the horrific crime he just committed,” she said.

“No remorse. No regret...,” added Andrews.

She said there were no mitigating factors in relation to the deadly December 2014 attack.

Pointing to King's lengthy criminal record, which contains 38 convictions, including assault with a weapon and assault causing bodily harm, Andrews said King has displayed a pattern of violence from a young age.

“No sentence imposed, no words expressed, can make up for the heartache …,” Andrews told the court.

King's lawyer, Jay Bran, recommended a parole ineligibility period of 10 to 12 years.

Bran stressed there was no evidence King planned the killing, and described the attack as occurring in the “heat of the moment.”

For some of John Wifladt's family, a life sentence should mean King spends the rest of his days behind bars.

“I hope (King) never gets out …,” wrote John's mother, Alice Wifladt, in a victim impact statement.

Alice said she could picture her son settling down with a family of his own if he were alive today.

In another statement read in court, a teenage girl who used to play in a music circle with John lamented the loss of her musical mentor.

“I could almost hear his guitar being played at his tombstone,” she wrote.

Justice Andrew Mahar will sentence King on Nov. 26.