Sentencing for the second of two men who escaped from William Head Institution in July has been delayed, awaiting a pre-sentence report.
James Lee Busch, 42, pleaded guilty in Western Communities courthouse on Monday to unlawfully escaping William Head prison on the night of July 7.
Busch appeared by video from medium-security Matsqui Institution in Abbotsford.
Busch and Zachary Armitage, 30, were discovered missing from William Head in Metchosin during an 11 p.m. head count. The two prisoners were recaptured in Esquimalt on July 9 by an off-duty RCMP officer.
Armitage was sentenced last month to an additional year in prison for his part in the escape. He is in medium security Mountain Institution prison in Agassiz.
Defence lawyer Roberto Alberto requested a Gladue report Busch; it’s an independent report that can be ordered in Canadian courts when sentencing of an offender of Aboriginal background is being considered. Busch, born in Edmonton, is a member of the Cold Lake First Nation.
The Gladue report is expected to take at least eight weeks. Busch is scheduled to appear in court by video on Feb. 13 to fix a date for sentencing.
When Judge Mayland McKimm asked Busch on Monday if he entered his guilty plea voluntarily, Busch said yes, but added that the “CSC” — Correctional Service of Canada —“they want to, ah, make an example.”
In response, McKimm told the prisoner the penalty was entirely up to the judge, “regardless of what anyone else might have told you.” Busch said he understood.
Outside the court, Alberto said his client understood his guilty plea and might have been expressing fear that he would receive a harsher sentence if the Correctional Service wanted to make an example of him for escaping.
Busch has been in prison, on probation or on parole for almost all his adult life. He has served a sentence for rape and is serving a sentence for second-degree murder committed in May 2010, fewer than three months after getting out of prison.
Since 2008, Busch has been in solitary confinement eight times, for anywhere from three days to 66 days. His experience was part of a case taken up in 2016 by the B.C. Civil Liberties Association and the John Howard Society of Canada against the Attorney General of Canada.
Armitage was serving a 14-year sentence, handed down in May 2011, for robbery and aggravated assault when he escaped with Busch. Armitage was placed at William Head in 2018 and was due for parole in September 2019.
During Armitage’s sentencing hearing for the escape, Judge Roger Cutler said he was “bewildered” as to why the inmate — with five previous escapes — was at the minimum-security prison and asked for a pre-sentence report.
That Correctional Service of Canada internal report revealed Armitage was assessed in February 2018 as a moderate risk to escape and best suited for a medium-security institution, but a week later, that recommendation was overridden and he was assessed as a low risk to escape and determined to be suitable for minimum security.
