BRANTFORD — The family members of three Six Nations people slain in a gruesome triple homicide in 2018 say there is “no accountability” after one of the accused received 18 years in prison – a sentence they believe is too lenient. The other has been out of custody since last November is only serving a peace bond.
Shipman, who was originally charged with second-degree murder, got 18 years for manslaughter and is also being credited four years of time served.
The judge said, “There is no sentence that will assist them to overcome their deep sense of loss.”
Shipman was one of two people charged with second-degree murder in the Oct. 29, 2018 triple homicide of Melissa Miller (who was seven months pregnant at the time of her death), Alan Porter, and Michael Jamieson.
The three victims were found in a truck near the Oneida Nation of the Thames in November 2018.
Shipman, who has been in jail since Nov. 3, 2018 on other charges, ended up pleading guilty to three counts of manslaughter, resulting in the 18-year sentence.
His girlfriend at the time, Jamie Beaver, was also originally charged with second-degree murder in Miller’s death, but pleaded guilty to aggravated assault. She had been sentenced to time served (48 months) and a three-year peace bond. She’s been free since Nov. 5, 2021.
The trial of another accused, Thomas Bomberry, who was charged with second-degree murder in two of the deaths, began in February but was put on hold after he fired his lawyer.
The gruesome details of the triple homicide unfolded after hunters happened upon an abandoned pick-up truck on Nov. 4, 2018 near Oneida Nation of the Thames near London, Ont.
That’s when the bodies of Miller, 37, Porter, 33, and Jamieson, 32, were discovered.
Miller and Porter suffered fatal stab wounds. Jamieson was shot in the chest. The murders were said to have taken place at a trailer owned by Kirsten Bomberry, who had served six years for an unrelated murder of a Romanian immigrant in 2004 while she was a sex worker in Hamilton. She was released in 2010.
She had faced accessory charges in the triple homicide but was acquitted of all charges.
The murders occurred after the accused and victims got into an argument in Bomberry’s trailer.
The court heard the triple homicide sent shockwaves through the community and caused divisions that remain to this day.
Shipman’s brother Vernon will face a trial in April for accessory charges.
