Seven-year sentence for Windsor killer in gun deal gone bad

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A Windsor man was handed a seven-year sentence for his role in a gun battle that occurred three years ago in the tight confines of a sports car in a residential neighbourhood that left another man dead.

Seven shots were fired inside the BMW as it drove through Forest Glade suburbia in east Windsor early on the evening of Dec. 29, 2021. Killed in the firefight was Patric Vicente-Sandy, 23, of Toronto.

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According to court records, Lawrence Davis, who was 23 at the time, had hoped to earn $8,000 in exchange for a shoebox he was carrying containing three illegal handguns.

Something in the illicit business transaction that night went wrong and “that dispute turned into a gunfight,” Ontario Court Justice Scott Pratt said during Tuesday’s sentencing.

A bullet grazed Davis, who was sitting in the rear, while Vicente-Sandy, in the front passenger seat, was struck by bullets to the head, chest and back from a fourth handgun that Davis had brought along to the rendezvous.

The BMW had been moving but when the shooting started, the driver, Philip Archer of Windsor, stopped the vehicle and fled. He would later be convicted and sentenced on a lesser criminal charge of occupying a vehicle knowing there was a firearm in it.

Davis would be arrested the following day and charged with first-degree murder and a number of other offences.

The deadly affair occurred only a week after Davis had been set free on bail pending a different criminal matter, and he was violating two of his pre-trial release conditions by being in possession of a weapon and not being at home.

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While sympathizing with the offender for a troubled past described during earlier court proceedings, the sentencing judge nevertheless said his “primary focus must be the protection of society.”

And that meant a strong message of denunciation and deterrence from the court. Pratt cited statistics showing climbing Canadian rates of gun crimes and gun deaths, which he described as “nothing less than a plague on Canadian society.”

The “danger created” by having loaded illegal handguns bought and sold by criminals in a residential neighbourhood “is obvious and chilling,” said Pratt. One of the handguns seized by police was a Taurus 9mm, while another was a .40-calibre Glock loaded with 15 rounds.

After having the murder charge dropped at the preliminary hearing stage, Davis, in custody since his arrest and now 26, pleaded guilty to four counts — trafficking firearms; possession of a loaded restricted or prohibited firearm; possession of a firearm while prohibited; and failure to comply with a release order.

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Arguing the seriousness of the matter, assistant Crown attorney Iain Skelton had sought a 10-year prison sentence. Defence lawyer Patricia Brown, arguing Davis had been the victim of a robbery attempt, had sought a penalty that didn’t go much beyond time already served.

The judge imposed a seven-year sentence. Using a standard formula to credit the close to three years spent in pre-sentence custody, Pratt calculated the balance to be served at 955 days, or two years and 7.5 months.

The judge made a point of saying self-defence was never proven in court but that Davis was not being sentenced for the killing of another person.

“I do not impose this sentence lightly,” Pratt said, adding: “This was a difficult case from the beginning. Mr. Davis, I wish you all the best.”

After Tuesday’s court proceedings, Davis’s lawyer told the Star the defence’s contention was that the would-be gun dealer had acted in self-defence. She said Davis was in the back seat and the rear child-proof locks had been engaged: it was “a set-up to kill my client.”

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Drawing from previous court records and two pre-sentence reports, Justice Pratt said it was all about money. Davis, a former Windsor high school footballer, had to give up the sport following a traumatic 2015 attack that left him brain-injured and suffering from PTSD and depression.

Adding to that a criminal record and only a Grade 11 education, he told the author of a pre-sentence report that his prospects for employment were slim, which is why he was trying to make money selling guns.

Davis’s lawyer told the judge her client was “really working on himself” while in custody. With renewed family support — his mother was in court during his sentencing — Brown told the Star that Davis “plans to go back to school and really focus on his family” and turn his life around.

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