Warning: This story contains graphic details A B.C. man who caused the death of his ex-girlfriend’s 57-year-old mother, then buried her in a “clandestine grave” on Burke Mountain in Coquitlam, has been sentenced to two years in jail. Carson Saul MacKay was charged with second-degree murder in October 2023, almost a year after the November 2022 death of Jodine Millar. MacKay pleaded guilty to the lesser offence of manslaughter earlier this year. He was sentenced in B.C. Supreme Court in New Westminster last week. Justice David M. Layton accepted a joint submission from Crown and defence attorneys recommending a sentence of two years and 99 days, with 99 days of credit for time already served. The parties also submitted an agreed statement of facts, which Layton used to summarize the offence. ‘Acting out of frustration’ According to the decision, MacKay was in a relationship with Sara Millar, Jodine’s adult daughter, when Jodine moved from Manitoba to B.C. in July 2021. The elder woman had experienced “mental health difficulties, including bipolar disorder,” and her daughter wanted to be able to look after her. The trio moved into a house in Coquitlam in May 2022, with MacKay and Sara Millar living on the main floor and Jodine living in the basement. They shared common living spaces, according to the decision. “In August 2022, Sara ended her relationship with Mr. MacKay, and in late September she moved out of the residence to a new home,” the decision reads. “However, Ms. Millar remained living in the basement.” In November of that year, Jodine was in a manic state and overfed her dog, who threw up on the basement stairs, according to the decision. “Mr. MacKay discovered the vomit and began to clean it up,” the decision reads. “Ms. Millar was inside her bedroom with the door closed. As he cleaned up the vomit, Mr. MacKay was kneeling down, with his head facing the closed bedroom door. Ms. Millar opened the door, and on seeing Mr. MacKay she became paranoid and angry. She was holding the knife that she used to cut up her pills, and began yelling at Mr. MacKay.” A “physical altercation” ensued, according to the decision. During the fight, MacKay pushed Millar “hard,” causing her to fall into the bedroom. “In pushing Ms. Millar, Mr. MacKay was not protecting himself, but rather was acting out of frustration,” the decision reads, noting that MacKay was roughly half Millar’s age and significantly taller and heavier than she was. “He thus committed the unlawful act of assaulting Ms. Millar.” MacKay “immediately turned and headed upstairs” after the shove, according to the decision, which adds that his intention was to “give Ms. Millar some space to calm down.” “About 10 minutes later, Mr. MacKay came back downstairs and found Ms. Millar deceased on the ground in her bedroom in a pool of blood,” the decision reads. “Ms. Millar had fallen onto the steak knife she had been holding when Mr. MacKay pushed her, and it was lodged in her body.” According to the decision, MacKay feared that he would be accused of intentionally murdering Millar. Rather than calling the police right away, he wrapped her body in blankets and “bound it with tape, rope and a dog collar,” before driving Millar’s car to a vacant lot on Burke Mountain and burying her in a forested area. MacKay reported Millar missing the following day, the decision notes, adding that her body was not found until six months later, in May 2023. ‘Numerous important triable issues’ Judges are required to give “substantial deference” to joint submissions on sentencing, rejecting them only if they are “so unhinged” from the circumstances of the case that they would lead a reasonable person to believe the justice system had broken down, according to Layton’s decision. With this in mind, the judge reviewed the aggravating and mitigating factors in the case. On the aggravating side, Layton considered the fact that MacKay’s decision to push Millar was “a dangerous course of action that carried a real risk of harm,” given the circumstances. The judge also noted that Millar was killed in her home, “which should have been a place of safety” for her. Particularly aggravating was the fact that MacKay “tried to hide what he had done, taking actions that desecrated Ms. Millar’s body and made it difficult to discern the exact cause of death,” according to the decision. Finally, Layton noted that Millar’s death had a “significant” impact on her family, causing them grief that “will undoubtedly last for years.” “Moreover, Mr. MacKay’s actions in burying Ms. Millar in a surreptitious grave deprived her family of the opportunity to bury her promptly and to mourn her passing properly,” the decision reads. There were significant mitigating factors to consider, as well, including the “brief” nature of the incident and the “significant element of chance” in Millar’s death, according to the decision. MacKay entered his guilty plea “relatively early in the process” and, in doing so, forfeited his right to advance several arguments in his defence under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Layton’s decision notes that Crown and defence agreed that MacKay would have had a “very strong” case to apply for a stay of proceedings because of the length of time he would have had to spend awaiting a trial. This amount of time would have exceeded the so-called “Jordan ceiling”—which defines reasonable and unreasonable delays in criminal trials—by six months by the time a trial concluded. MacKay also had viable arguments for excluding Crown evidence because of alleged breaches of Sections 7, 8 and 9 of the Charter, according to Layton’s decision. Those sections deal with the rights to life, liberty and security of the person, the right to be secure against unreasonable search and seizure and the right not to be arbitrarily detained or imprisoned, respectively. “Bearing these aggravating and mitigating factors in mind, and in particular the early guilty plea pursuant to which Mr. MacKay relinquished the right to contest numerous important triable issues … I have no difficulty in concluding that this is one of those cases where the circumstances justify a sentence below the range of four to 15 years’ imprisonment,” Layton’s decision reads. The judge added that the joint submission was the result of lengthy discussions between experienced lawyers and that the value gained by accepting the proposed sentence would be significant. “Accordingly, I am satisfied that a reasonable and informed person, cognizant of the circumstances, would conclude that the proposed sentence reflects a properly functioning justice system, as opposed to one that has broken down, and accounts for the hard decisions Crown and defence counsel must legitimately make in difficult cases,” the decision concludes. In addition to imposing a sentence of two years in jail, Layton ordered MacKay to submit DNA samples and banned him from possessing firearms. The judge also ordered him to have no communication with Millar’s family during his imprisonment.
