UPDATE: On April 23, 2018 McQuinn was sentenced to 120 days in jail for attempted obstruction. She has since been released.
*GRAPHIC CONTENT WARNING*
Dominic Decque has been sentenced to eight years in prison for his role in the death of 25 year old Adrian Snider. Decque plead guilty earlier this year to manslaughter, after having been initially charged with murder.
According to an agreed statement of facts, then 27 year old Decque and Snider were part of a drug trafficking and prostitution operation that was being run out of a duplex in Hillside in March 2015. After finding $11,500 and a gun missing, Decque’s older brother Patrick suspected Snider and held Dominic responsible for “dealing with him.”
Patrick gave Dominic a metal pipe and a pair of handcuffs, and some time the next night, he and an associate named Tommy Paul attacked Snider at the home. He was handcuffed and assaulted with the pipe, as Dominic asked him what happened to the money. Snider pleaded with them to stop, and a sock was shoved in his mouth. He later fell unconscious and died.
An autopsy found blunt force trauma was one of the 25 year old’s possible causes of death, as he was struck in the head at least five times. There were no skull fractures, and a drug overdose or choking were the other possible causes of death.
When Patrick arrived at the home, Snider had already passed away. His body was moved onto an air mattress, and two of the escorts were ordered to clean up the significant amount of blood. One of them was Courtney McQuinn, who is charged with accessory to murder after the fact. Floorboards and furniture was also removed from the duplex to be burned.
The next day, the men scouted out several locations to bury Snider, and settled on a farmer’s field just outside of Grande Prairie. Patrick drove Dominic and Paul there that night, and the body was left naked in a shallow grave. Patrick later led police to the site.
At Friday’s sentencing hearing in Grande Prairie, Crown prosecutor Aisling Ryan asked for a 10 year sentence, while Decque’s lawyer Daryl Royer argued for between 4.5 years and seven. Justice B.A. Browne settled on eight years, based on the planning of the attack, the weapons used, and the significant efforts made to clean up the scene and dispose of the body.
“He should and could have contacted the authorities at a number of stages,” she noted. “He did not.”
She also took into account Decque’s guilty plea, evidence of remorse, and the boot camp program he has completed in remand, as well circumstances of his upbringing. Browne recommended that he serve the rest of his sentence at a federal corrections facility in B.C. to be closer to his family, and that he take trades programs so he will have skills when he is released.
“You have your life ahead of you,” she told him after she delivered his sentence. “I hope that you figure out a way to contribute to society.”
Patrick was scheduled to go to trial for his manslaughter and accessory to murder charges this June, but the date has been waived as he looks for another lawyer. Paul has also plead guilty to manslaughter, and will be in court in Edmonton on April 18th for a decision. McQuinn will be back in Grande Prairie court in August.