A former professional footballer who was convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend will not be entitled to parole for 14 years.
Joshua Boden, who once played with the Canadian Football League as a recipient, learned his sentence in a courtroom in Vancouver on Friday.
The second-degree murder sentences come with an automatic life sentence in British Columbia, so the judge had to determine when Boden would be eligible for parole. The crown demanded 15 years, while Boden’s legal team proposed 12 years.
Boden, 35, was found guilty last year of the second-degree murder of Kimberly Halgart. The 33-year-old was killed in 2009 at a home in Burnaby, British Columbia, which she shares with her three-year-old daughter.
During the hearing of Boden’s sentence, the Supreme Court of British Columbia heard that Boden brutally beat his ex-girlfriend, strangled her and then staged the scene in an attempt to make her death look like an accident.
The Crown called her murder “dumb, brutal and horrific,” and prosecutor Brendan McCabe described her injuries as the most shocking he had seen in his career.
McCabe said photos of her injuries from a previous attack from Boden were sent to then-BC Lions coach Wally Buono. He said Boden blamed Holgart for the end of his career.
The assassination came a year after Boden was released by the BC Lions, with whom he only signed in 2007.
At the time of his release, he had planned to play with Hamilton Tiger-Cots, but never played a regular season game with the team. He was expelled from the team.
Boden maintains his innocence during the trial.
With files from Maria Weisgarber of CTV News from Vancouver in court and The Canadian Press
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