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Life Sentence With 25 Years’ Parole Ineligibility for Zain Wood in Murder of Isabelle Thomas

The judge called the planned killing extremely aggravated, citing the six-year-old who witnessed it.

Overview

  • BC Supreme Court in Prince George imposed the mandatory life term on Friday after Wood’s first-degree murder conviction.
  • Tammen ordered a lifetime firearms ban, DNA collection and no contact with Thomas’s relatives, and noted Wood may seek a reduction after 15 years under the faint hope mechanism.
  • Court findings say Wood cased Thomas’s home days earlier, entered before 7 a.m. on July 18, 2023 wearing a mask and gloves, and fatally stabbed her; the court heard he was inside for about 35 seconds and delivered 16 wounds.
  • At the time of the killing, Wood was on bail with electronic monitoring for an aggravated assault charge; the judge rejected his account of a sudden confrontation.
  • Roughly 50 supporters held a courthouse vigil, and Thomas’s mother alleged repeated ankle-monitor breaches and called for reforms to bail supervision and electronic monitoring.