A man found to have been linked to the killing of Surrey teen Maple Batalia more than five years ago has been sentenced to 18 months in prison this morning in B.C. Supreme Court in New Westminster.
Last May, Gursimar Singh Bedi (below) was found not guilty of manslaughter in relation to the killing Batalia. However, he was found guilty of being an accessory after the fact.
The usual range in sentencing for accessory after the fact is four to seven years in jail. Crown was seeking six years and the defence argued for a conditional sentence.
Justice Terence Schultes said a conditional sentence would not meet the standards of deterrence and denunciation. Schultes sentenced Bedi to 22 months, but with time already served, the sentence amounts to 18 months.
"We are not happy with the justice system," said Harry Batalia, Maple's father, told The Leader outside court. "We have lost an angel. She is not coming back."
The shooting of Batalia took place on Sept. 28, 2011 and sent a community into mourning.
Batalia, 19, was gunned down in a parkade outside SFU Surrey after a late-night study session. She died later in hospital of three gunshot wounds to the torso and left arm. She also had 11 knife wounds on her head.
Batalia was alive when police arrived, but succumbed to her injuries in hospital in the early morning hours of Sept. 28.
Bedi’s co-accused, Gurjinder (“Gary”) Dhaliwal, was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 21 years after pleading guilty to second-degree murder in Batalia’s death.
During the trial, Crown contended that while Dhaliwal was the one to shoot Batalia – his ex-girlfriend – three times and slash her numerous times with a knife, it was Bedi who rented the car that laid in wait outside SFU Surrey.
It was also Bedi who tracked Batalia and reported her whereabouts to her killer, Crown counsel asserted.
“In doing so, Mr. Bedi served as the eyes and ears of Mr. Dhaliwal,” Crown said during trial.
Police found bullet casings and a knife at the crime scene and also examined a white Dodge Charger linked to the murder.
Inside the car investigators found a receipt from a car wash, a blood stain on a headlight control dial and a stain on the driver’s side sun visor.
There was also a bullet casing lodged under the hood of the car, the court heard.
Schultes said evidence indicates Bedi did not know a murder was going to take place on that night.
But he believes Bedi played a role in assisting Dhaliwal before and after the murder took place, by renting a car for him and by keeping him informed of the police investigation afterward.
"I cannot conclude that Mr. Bedi's efforts played any actual specific role in thwarting the police investigation," Shultes told the court.
He noted a conditional sentence could be considered, but it would not serve the factors of denunciation and deterrence.
Batalia family friend Barinder Rasode said afterward the family was hoping for something closer to five or six years.
"I mean, 18 months, I don't even know what to say," Rasode said. She noted members of the Batalia family have been huge advocates of ending violence in the community since Maple was killed.
"The steps that have not been in their control have failed them."