8-year sentence for woman who joined in torture killing of former friend
WARNING: The details in this article are graphic and violent.
One of those involved in the torture death of a woman who hung from a garage rafter for 12 hours was handed an eight-year sentence Friday in Calgary.
Natalie Vinje was originally charged with first-degree murder but pleaded guilty to manslaughter last June.
With credit for the time already served, Vinje has just under four years left on her sentence, noted Court of King's Bench Justice Jim Eamon.
Prosecutors Donna Spaner and Melissa Bond sought a 14-year prison sentence. Defence lawyer Andrea Urquhart asked the judge to consider a time-served sentence of four years and two months, plus a period of probation.
For 12 hours, Tammie Howard, known as "Irish," was hung from the rafters of a garage in southeast Calgary. The killers beat Howard and shot her with a nail gun.
A victim impact statement was written by Howard's three children, detailing their feelings of heartbreak and betrayal.
"To know that someone she called a friend and met her kids could take her life in the manner that it was is one of the most horrendous things to ever hear," they wrote.
"We pray that our mom is finally at peace and free of any suffering."
During the plea, court heard that Vinje was angry with Howard for stranding her in Drumheller, Alta., about 100 kilometres northeast of Calgary.
Details of the crime come from an agreed statement of facts presented during Vinje's plea.
On Christmas Day 2016, Vinje's boyfriend Thomas Evans brought the victim to his garage and instructed friends to tie her up and duct tape her mouth.
Howard was then hung from a hook in the rafters.
Vinje confessed to undercover officers that she and others attacked Howard, throwing punches, beating her "to a pulp."
Two men fired nails into her body from a nail gun.
Twelve hours after the attack began, the killers pulled Howard down and she succumbed to her injuries on the garage floor.
The group dumped Howard's body near Gleichen, about 60 kilometres east of the city.
In 2021, nearly five years after the vicious killing, a fisherman discovered Howard's skull on Siksika Nation lands and called RCMP.
One of the attackers has since died of an overdose. Evans was never charged.
On Friday, Vinje told Howard's family she was sorry.
"I just wish I wouldn't have been such a coward," said Vinje. "I wish I would have done something to stop it.
"I'm really sorry for taking her from you, nobody deserves to go through what she went through."
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