The man who shot and killed Adam Jones outside a Kitchener apartment building was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison, with no chance of parole for 12 years.
Two other men who planned the altercation with Jones – which, court documents show, was never meant to end with the 25-year-old dead – were also handed lengthy prison sentences.
Jones was killed in September 2012, outside his Belmont Avenue high-rise.
Kadeem Gabriel, who fired the shot that killed him, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in December, meaning an automatic life sentence
With credit for time served, he will be eligible for parole in 2025.
Tyrone Wint and Jerome Phillips pleaded guilty to manslaughter in connection with the case, and were sentenced to seven and eight years in prison respectively.
Both men also receive credit for time already served.
According to previously released court documents, Jones and Wint were low-level drug dealers in the midst of a dispute.
With tensions between their organizations rising, Wint, Phillips and Gabriel plotted to rob Jones at gunpoint.
The gun was only fired after Jones reached back in what Gabriel interpreted as an attempted to grab the gun, the documents show.
Before the sentences were read out Tuesday, court heard from Jones’ mother, Deborah Jones – on whose birthday Jones was shot – and his sister.
Wint and Phillips then rose from their seats and apologized to Jones’ family.
After the sentencing, Deborah Jones said she didn’t feel closure from the day’s events.
“It opens up all the grief and the pain and the wounds – but it is the beginning of us healing again,” she said.
“The agony never really stops.”
