A BC Supreme Court judge in Prince George said Friday, Feb. 13 that Zain Xavier Wood’s killing of Isabelle Opal Rose Spirit Thomas was “extremely aggravated, even within the confines of first-degree murder.”
Justice Michael Tammen sentenced Wood to the mandatory life in prison without parole eligibility for 25 years. Tammen found the 25-year-old guilty of the July 18, 2023 crime on Nov. 10.
“Miss Thomas was an Indigenous woman who was brutally murdered within the sanctity of her own home, indeed, in her bedroom,” Tammen said.
“Two, Mr. Wood killed Miss Thomas in the presence of her six-year-old daughter who witnessed the killing of her mother and saw her mother die from her injuries.”
Wood and Thomas had been in an intimate relationship for several months in 2019 before breaking up that year. But they maintained a casual relationship into the summer of 2023.
“For reasons known only to Mr. Wood, he decided to kill Miss Thomas,” said Crown prosecutor Tyler Bauman.
Wood cased the 22-year-old Thomas’s Alpine Village townhouse on July 12 and 13 of 2023. He arrived before 7 a.m. on July 18, 2023 wearing gloves, a mask and hood, entered Thomas’s home, went upstairs and stabbed her to death.
He had no criminal record at the time, but was on bail after being charged with aggravated assault.
“Nothing in the confines of the Canadian criminal legal system can ever undo the pain, salve the wounds, or indeed make any meaningful reparations for the surviving family members of Miss Thomas,” Tammen said. “Equally, no purpose is served by this court attempting to label the offence or the offender using adjectives. The murder, as noted in my reasons for conviction, was savage, brutal, callous, premeditated, planned over a period of time.”
Earlier in the hearing, the victim’s mother, Leslie Thomas, told the court that her daughter carried kindness in her voice and strength in her spirit. Isabelle was more than a name in a report or a statistic in the system.
“She matters. She was loved and she will never be forgotten,” she said in a prepared victim impact statement.
Thomas focused on the impact of the murder on her granddaughters. Because of Wood, “grief will quietly sit beside these children every day of their lives.”
“Two innocent girls who will grow up without their mother around them, without her voice calling their names, without her guidance through life’s hardest moments,” Thomas said. “They will not know the comfort of running to her.”
Nor will they see her smile at graduations, birthdays or other life milestones that they should have shared.
“They will grow up asking questions no child should have to ask.”
Speaking directly to Wood, Thomas said: “You did not just end a life. You shattered the family. You turned a home filled with love into a broken home.”
She said accountability cannot bring comfort, but “acknowledgement matters, and responsibility matters and truth matters.”
Wood’s lawyer, Tony Lagemaat, conceded that his client’s struggles with mental health and addiction were no justification for the crime, which caused “tragedy to the community and the family, in particular the children.”
“He has asked me to relate to the family that he is sorry for what happened,” Lagemaat said. “He'll have a long time to reflect on this. We cannot give up on him, so he comes out of this a better man.”
Tammen imposed a lifetime ban on Wood possessing any firearms, ammunition and explosives and ordered Wood to provide a DNA sample. He is also prohibited from communicating with the victim’s relatives.
Under the so-called faint hope clause, Tammen said Wood may apply for a reduction in the number of years of his sentence after serving at least 15 years.
