No words can express how the mother of a 19-year-old murdered during an armed robbery still feels, more than two years after her son was killed as he worked the late shift at a Winnipeg beer vendor, court heard during sentencing arguments Thursday for the man convicted of pulling the trigger.
That’s why Maria Barrion said in a text message read in court she decided not to write a victim impact statement ahead of William Arthur Sampson’s sentencing — whatever the judge’s decision, she wrote, “it won’t bring back my son’s life.”
Her son, John Lloyd Maaba Barrion, was shot while working the late shift at Travelodge by Wyndham Winnipeg on Notre Dame Avenue in the early morning hours of Feb. 15, 2022.
Court heard Sampson, now 54, and two other men came in a few minutes before 2 a.m., and a man wearing a mask approached Barrion, pulled out a gun and stuck the end of it through the secure kiosk Barrion was behind.
Barrion then handed over the cash drawer and started to slowly back away from the man with the gun before he was shot in what Crown attorney Daniel Chaput called a “heinous” crime.
“Mr. Sampson tracked Mr. Barrion with that firearm, had enough time to consider what it was he was doing [and] shot Mr. Barrion in cold blood, striking him in the lower back, causing him to go to ground,” the prosecutor told Court of King’s Bench Justice Joan McKelvey.
“Mr. Sampson came for that drawer full of nickels and quarters and bills, and he took that from Mr. Barrion. And then he took everything else.”
Sampson, who was brought into court with his wrists and ankles shackled after being convicted of second-degree murder in December, sat in the prisoner’s box throughout the sentencing hearing, at times leaning forward to listen to his lawyer speak.
When asked by the judge whether there was anything he wanted to say, Sampson slowly shook his head no, leaning back with his arms crossed.
The death of Barrion, whose family had moved to Winnipeg from the Philippines, left the city’s Filipino community reeling.
At the time of the shooting, Barrion had recently graduated from Technical Vocational High School and would work odd jobs in the summer to help his family, a friend of the Barrions previously told CBC News.
The young man was working at the vendor to save money for college, and his friends said he dreamed of studying to become a chef.
Chaput said he’s known Barrion’s family since charges were laid in his case, “and I can only say to the court what it is that I’ve seen in the family.”
“At every step, every turn, every meeting it is a palpable loss, an emptiness, an inability to articulate in words, to calculate and affix some pontification on that loss,” Chaput said. “It’s bottomless. They are devastated. They have lost their son, they have lost their brother.”
Parole eligibility to be determined
While Sampson’s conviction of second-degree murder carries an automatic life sentence, the judge still has to decide how long he’ll have to wait before he can apply for parole — a number that can be anywhere from the minimum of 10 years to the maximum of 25.
Prosecutors want Sampson to be ineligible for parole for 18 to 20 years, noting his lengthy criminal record involving mostly robberies that stretches back decades and describing Sampson as having “very little hope” of rehabilitation.
However, Sampson’s lawyer Kristen Jones asked for a parole ineligibility period of 14 or 15 years, outlining a challenging upbringing that involved time in foster care and abuse suffered at a provincial institution as context that set him on the path he’s on today.
She said her client detailed “some pretty shocking detail about the level of violence” he experienced at that school and the “absolutely debasing racialized language that was the norm” there for Sampson, who is Black.
Jones said Sampson completed up to a Grade 7 education and has struggled with substance use.
She also noted the writer of his pre-sentence report found Sampson did have the potential for rehabilitation, and said he has significant health issues including a previous heart attack.
“It’s our submission that considering the facts of the case, the personal circumstances of Mr. Sampson — who’s going to be entering into a penitentiary at 54 years of age — that we are recommending that he not be allowed to even ask to be let out until he’s well into his 60s,” Jones said.
“That is sufficient, that is just and that is what’s required.”
Sampson’s co-accused, Ryan Jeron Smith, pleaded guilty in February 2024 and was sentenced to seven years minus time served. Charges against a third man were stayed in 2022.
McKelvey reserved her decision on Thursday. A next court date has been set for March 26.
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