CALGARY – Despite smiling, laughing and blowing kisses towards his victim's supporters, convicted murderer Alexander Vuozzo insisted Thursday he was sorry for snuffing the life of a Calgary man.
But Vuozzo also laid blame at victim Kevin Bowser's hands, saying his decision to deal drugs on a part-time basis sealed his fate.
"I can't change that he was a drug dealer, that's what happens when you get caught up in the game," Vuozzo said, addressing a large group of Bowser's supporters.
Bowser's mother, Darlene, was disappointed Vuozzo, like his trial, focussed on the fact her son occasionally sold drugs to friends.
"That wasn't Kevin, that was a part of Kevin, maybe — a small part," she said outside court, as supporters lauded Bowser as a loving family man and artist.
Earlier, Bowser's sister, Ronda, read a victim impact statement which had many family members wiping away tears — and Vuozzo grinning, smirking and yawning in the prisoner's box.
"You have injected hate and terror into our lives," she said, addressing Vuozzo and his co-accused, Michael Wozny.
"Nothing can ever change what you two did, but I want my face etched into your memories so I can haunt your every nightmare," she said.
Vuzzo was convicted of murder and Wozny of manslaughter last June, in connection with their roles in the Jan. 9, 2008, stabbing death of Bowser inside his home.
The two men entered Bowser's residence with the intention of robbing him of any cash and drugs he had, and when the victim stood up from his couch, TV remote in hand, Vuozzo repeatedly stabbed him.
Judge Beth Hughes ruled Vuozzo intended to commit murder in the attack, while Wozny, as an accomplice, was guilty of manslaughter.
Crown prosecutor Gary Cornfield argued Vuozzo, 19 at the time of the killing, should be ordered to serve between 15 and 20 years before being eligible to apply for parole from his mandatory life sentence.
But defence lawyer David Chow suggested a parole ineligibility of 12 years would be sufficient, noting his client will have matured a decade down the road.
"He can change, he can grow, he can become a different person," Chow said.
Hughes will make her sentencing decision on Sept. 17.
Wozny's sentencing hearing was adjourned because a psychiatric report is incomplete.
kevin.martin@sunmedia.ca
