At 24 years old, Dante Ognibene-Hebbourn is now the same age as the woman he killed while experiencing drug-induced psychosis in 2022.
His victim, Harmandeep Kaur, was working as a security guard at Kelowna's UBC Okanagan campus, with goals of saving up enough money to go to school and pursue a career that would positively contribute to society, at the time of her death.
More than three years after the attack that claimed her life, Kaur's family travelled to Kelowna from India to hear Ognibene-Hebbourn enter a guilty plea for manslaughter and be sentenced to 15 years in custody. Ognibene-Hebbourn had originally been charged with one count of second-degree murder but pleaded guilty to the lesser offence of manslaughter on May 13, bypassing the need for a trial.
On May 14, the Honourable Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes read her sentencing decision to a Kelowna courtroom, which was filled with Kaur's family, friends, colleagues and supporters.
Justice Holmes sentenced Ognibene-Hebbourn to 15 years in prison, less time served. Ognibene-Hebbourn has remained in custody since being released from psychiatric care in April 2022 and will recieve remand credit of four years and nine months, meaning he will serve an additional 10 years and three months in federal prison.
More to come.
