Sylvester Won’t Learn Sentencing Fate In Killing Of Alicia Ross Until Friday
Posted July 4, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Daniel Sylvester knows he’s going to jail. The question is how long he’ll have to stay there before becoming eligible for parole. The man who admits he killed 25-year-old Alicia Ross in a fit of anger in August 2005 has already been found guilty of second degree murder. But his attempts to plead guilty to manslaughter were rejected by a court. And now the 33-year-old is waiting to find out how long he’ll have to spend behind bars before getting the chance to even be considered for release. That decision won’t come until Friday, after a day of emotional victim impact statements filled a Newmarket courtroom.
The most haunting came from Ross’ mother, who issued a heartbreaking remembrance about what the loss of her daughter has meant to her life. Sharon Fortis told the judge she hasn’t been the same since the night Alicia went missing. “My daughter died alone looking in the face of her murderer,” she read, the feelings obvious in her voice. “I imagine she was calling ‘mommy, mommy!'” It’s an imagined call that still haunts the woman about her adopted daughter. “I constantly visualize how Alicia died, how she was left naked to rot,” Fortis continued. “I can’t fathom how this happened to my beautiful daughter.”
Sylvester listened to the statement but showed no emotion as her words tumbled out in a torrent of sorrow.
The convicted murderer told police he killed his next-door-neighbour after she encountered him outside a narrow passageway between their homes and called him a ‘loser’. He claims he knocked her to the ground and she died after hitting her head on the pavement. He then put her body in the trunk of his car and drove it up north, before disposing of it in a remote area – and going back to move it again.
Sylvester was a surprise suspect in the case. After one of the largest searches in Ontario history failed to turn up the missing woman, he walked into a local police station and confessed to the brutal crime. Second degree murder carries an automatic life sentence with no parole consideration for ten years. The defence is hoping the judge sticks to that penalty, but the Crown wants to see Sylvester stay behind bars for at least 18-20 years before he can even consider trying to apply for his freedom.
The Ross family has set up a website in tribute to their lost daughter. It includes an emotional retrelling of the story by her mother. Read it here.
