Maple Batalia’s loved ones describe years of suffering at sentencing hearing
Posted October 31, 2016 1:48 pm.
Last Updated October 31, 2016 3:27 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – In a victim impact statement, the sister of Maple Batalia says her family still pays for Maple’s cell phone so they can listen to her voicemail message.
Tearful statements from Batalia’s sister, mother, and best friend were read out in BC’s Supreme Court today during the sentencing hearing of Gursimar Bedi, 26, who was found guilty of being an accessory to her murder.
Batalia, then 19, was shot multiple times in the parking lot of Surrey’s SFU campus on Sept. 28, 2011. Her ex-boyfriend, Gurjinder Dhaliwal, later pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 21 years.
Court heard that Bedi rented the Dodge Charger Dhaliwal used to stalk Batalia, and did some of the stalking himself, reporting back to Dhaliwal.
Bedi was in the Charger when Batalia was killed, and gave Dhaliwal a ride home afterwards. In the following days, Bedi texted Dhaliwal to warn him that police investigators were at his house, and to suggest they set up an alibi.
The Crown is requesting a six-year prison sentence.
The defense is pushing for house arrest, arguing that Bedi was an unwilling participant in the murder of someone for whom he held no ill-will.
In her statement, Batalia’s mother says “there are no words” to describe the pain and suffering they have endured since Maple’s death. She adds that her family seems to be falling apart after the murder, more than five years after it happened.
