Man sentenced for manslaughter after killing wife while ‘profoundly intoxicated’

PRINCE GEORGE, B.C. — A man has been sentenced for manslaughter in relation to the 2023 killing of his wife near Williston Lake.

In a court document, Justice Sandra Sukstorf ruled Brent Angus McCook, 28, was “profoundly intoxicated” in the shooting of his wife, Rochelle Poole, in the remote community of Kwadacha, a First Nations community northwest of Fort St. John.

Sukstorf sentenced McCook to six years and nine months in jail, plus three years of probation and a lifetime firearm ban.

Including his time already served, McCook will serve nearly two more years behind bars. The crown was looking for a sentence of 16 years.

McCook, a member of Kwadacha Nation, a Tsek’ehne community of around 400 people, committed the shooting after a period of 17 hours of “extreme alcohol consumption.”

“Mr. McCook consumed very large quantities of alcohol and became profoundly intoxicated,” wrote Sukstorf in the report. “Witnesses and responding police officers consistently described him as incoherent, erratic, confused and severely impaired.”

McCook discharged the firearm inside the couple’s residence toward a parked vehicle in their driveway, striking Poole in the head while she sat in the passenger seat in January 2024.

In the report, it said McCook also shot at a neighbour’s house and other people who had come on the scene. It describes his conduct as “erratic and disorganized.”

McCook did not flee, and was disarmed shortly thereafter by community members before being taken into custody. 

An autopsy determined Poole’s blood alcohol level was at 0.281 g/100 ml, a level “consistent with severe intoxication and significant cognitive and motor impairment,” according to the report.

However, Sukstorf said the relationship was one marked by “alcohol-fuelled dependency” and Poole was “likely asleep, unconscious or otherwise incapacitated,” when the bullet fatally struck her.

The court determined McCook had no prior record before the shooting, and was described as “a good bro” in a victim impact statement provided by a member of Poole’s family.

In making the ruling, the judge wrote “although Mr. McCook’s moral blameworthiness is attenuated by the absence of planning motive or deliberate targeting, the gravity of the harm and the lethal risk created by the use of a firearm required a substantial custodial sentence.”