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A Port Alberni woman has been convicted of manslaughter in the shooting death of her son three years ago.
On Friday, a B.C. Supreme Court jury acquitted Samantha Dittmer of the second-degree murder of Jesse McPhee, but found Dittmer guilty of the lesser offence of manslaughter, based on the unlawful act of her careless use of a firearm.
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Justice Margot Fleming has allowed Dittmer to remain in the community on her bail conditions. Fleming ordered a pre-sentence report with a forensic psychiatric component to assist at sentencing. A date for that hearing will be set on Oct. 30 in Nanaimo Supreme Court.
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There is no minimum sentence for manslaughter except when it is committed with a firearm. In that case, the minimum sentence is four years.
The jury, which has been sitting since Sept. 11, began their deliberations around 6 p.m. Wednesday. They reached their unanimous verdict around 6 p.m. Friday.
The verdict means the jury found Dittmer did not intend to kill her son but found that her handling of the rifle was a marked departure from the standard of care of a reasonable person.
McPhee, a 37-year-old longshoreman, was shot and killed at point-blank range with a hunting rifle in their shared home on Aug. 29, 2021.
Dittmer calling the shooting “a tragic accident.” Her defence lawyer Brian Coleman told the jury that Dittmer never intended to harm her son. She simply did not want the gun in her home and she decided to make a symbolic gesture by returning it to him.
The Crown argued that Dittmer intended to kill McPhee when she shot him with the rifle.
Prosecutor Gordon Baines said Dittmer’s version of events — that she did not know the rifle was loaded and did not pull the trigger — was not credible. Dittmer did not take any reasonable precaution for the safety of others and significantly contributed to her son’s death, said Baines.
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Her handling of the rifle was dangerous and the risk of serious bodily harm was foreseeable, court was told. Dittmer’s actions constituted a marked departure from the standard of care of a reasonable person under the circumstances, said Baines.
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