COURT OF APPEAL FOR ONTARIO

DATE: 20030710

DOCKET: C38318

RE: HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN (Appellant) – and – DANIELE RENZI (Respondent)

BEFORE: CATZMAN, FELDMAN and GILLESE JJ.A.

COUNSEL: Paul Lindsay For the appellant

Robert Di Vincenzo For the respondent

HEARD: July 8, 2003

RELEASED ORALLY: July 8, 2003

On appeal from sentence imposed by Justice A. J. Fuller of the Ontario Court of Justice on May 7, 2002.

E N D O R S E M E N T

[1] The Crown appeals from the sentence imposed by the trial judge of nine years including 30 months of pre-trial custody which he counted as five years. The trial judge effectively imposed a five-year sentence on the respondent for conspiracy to kidnap his wife and counselling the murder of his wife, and four years consecutive for one count of counselling the murder of a Crown attorney and of his wife.

[2] The Crown submits that the sentence imposed by the trial judge was manifestly unfit. We agree with that submission.

[3] Although the trial judge referred to the serious nature of the crimes and the need for general deterrence and denunciation in imposing sentence, he failed to give sufficient weight to these factors in the egregious circumstances of this case, nor did he sufficiently address the numerous aggravating factors in these offences.

[4] Foremost among the aggravating factors is the identity of the victims and the requirement that the court recognize the special protection that must be accorded to a spouse as well as to all persons who are involved in the administration of justice. The threat to harm a spouse and a Crown attorney and his wife require that the court emphasize denunciation and general deterrence in imposing sentence.

[5] The other aggravating factors here are the deliberate, calculating and callous conduct of the respondent which continued over an extended period of time; the fact that the counselling to kidnap and murder his wife a second time and to extend the crime to the Crown Attorney and his wife was carried out while the appellant was in custody after being arrested for his first attempt to have his wife kidnapped; the fact that there were three intended victims; and the fact that the plan included gratuitous violence.

[6] The result of the foregoing is that this court is at liberty to review the sentence and to impose a sentence that we consider fit and appropriate. The Crown at trial and on appeal seeks a total sentence of fourteen years including five years of pre-trial custody. The Crown does not object to the trial judge’s apportionment of five years for the offences involving the respondent’s wife. He says that the four years for the offence against the Crown Attorney and his wife should be increased to nine years. In our view, the four-year sentence for the offence against the Crown attorney and his wife should be increased from four years to eight years. The total sentence is therefore thirteen years, giving credit for five years of pre-trial custody.

[7] In the result, leave to appeal sentence is granted, the appeal is allowed, the sentence in respect of the third count is increased to eight years, and the total sentence is increased from nine years to thirteen years.

Signed: "M.A. Catzman J.A." "K. Feldman J.A." "E.E. Gillese J.A."