A man who beat his adversary’s mother with a baseball bat during a violent home invasion in northern B.C. was given a provincial sentence of two years less a day, as the judge found he had turned his life around dramatically since committing the crimes.
Craig Brentton Durando pleaded guilty to breaking and entering, assault with a weapon and robbery following the September 2023 incident in Terrace. His sentenced was handed down in B.C. Supreme Court earlier this week.
The court heard that Durando and four other friends planned to confront and assault a man named Nicolas Balatti in his home after Balatti and one of the friends got into a “verbal altercation involving mutual threats” at a house party in August of that year, and continued the argument over TikTok and Snapchat.
A buddy of mine went to jail in the 80’s and he got the same sentence (not for the same deed though). That’s when I learned the slang for this very popular sentencing was called “a deuce less”.
What’s the purpose of the “less a day”? Does that given them an easier path to a pardon to wipe their record later?
Many crimes have a maximum sentence of 2 years less a day, but it’s also often used as a sentence as a result of how the Criminal Code requires sentences to be served.
Sentences of 2 years or more need to be served in a federal prison, so a sentence of 2 years less a day allows the sentence to be served in a correctional facility/provincial jail instead.