Ball sentenced to one day in addition to time served
Posted Mar 11, 2016 01:07:19 PM.
Last Updated Mar 12, 2016 11:17:47 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Michael Ball will spend one day in prison after being convicted of indignity to a body in relation to the death of Erin Howlett.
Including time served, the 24-year-old will potentially spend 24 hours behind bars.
Crown Attorney Mark Poland tells 570 News that this is not unusual.
“What the judge did by imposing a sentence of one day was very routine in matters where the court has deemed the time served is sufficient to meet the ends of justice (…) In the usual course, the person would go and make an appearance at Maplehurst [Correctional Complex in Milton], and be released on the same day.”
Ball’s lawyer had asked for 18 months, while the Crown was asking for a three-five year sentence. He has already served nearly two years.
A mistrial on the first degree murder charge was declared on March 4th as the jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict.
Since then, the Crown has said they plan to prosecute Ball in a second trial due to “overwhelming public interest” and a “reasonable prospect of conviction.”
“It’s not that we’re laying another charge against him; there is an active indictment in front of the court, alleging that Michael Ball committed the first degree murder of Howlett. That is a live indictment” says Poland.
“What we have to do is figure out together; the court, the defence and the Crown, what the next steps are in the case. We remand a matter to the assignment court and in the meantime, we all get on the same page, and figure out how we’re going to move this case through the court system.”
“There is ten miles of bumpy road to go before we’re at the end of it here.”
Poland says they’re back in court next Thursday.
He says they still have the power to request a bail hearing, which could land Ball behind bars again, but wouldn’t say if that’s part of the plan.
Before the sentence was read, witness impact statements were heard. Howlett’s mother, Cathy Howlett, told the court that her daughter “was a smiling, bubbling, loving girl (…) my dreams for her are gone.”
She says it feels as though, “someone reached into my chest and ripped my heart out, but I didn’t die (…) the sadness is too much for me.”
The remains of the 28-year-old Howlett were found in a duffle bag in the Grand River in 2013.
Court heard the pair dated in the spring of 2013, but the relationship went downhill early in June.
