Corrine Burns was remembered in a Guelph court room Wednesday as a unique, caring, sensitive woman who had an infectious laugh and wrote her mom poetry.
Burns, 29, died in 2008. Her naked body found badly beaten in Norm Jary Park in Guelph's west end just off Willow Road.
On Wednesday, in a surprising turn of events, the man once convicted of murdering her pled guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter.
Christopher McDonald received a 10-year prison sentence from Justice Bruce Durno.
McDonald, now 43, will serve his sentence after he has finished serving the remaining five years on an aggravated assault conviction that happened in Barrie after Burns' death but before he was arrested for it.
"Corrine was a unique person with an expansive personality and an infectious laugh," wrote her sister Candice Griffin in a victim impact statement read in court.
Griffin called her sister "a kindhearted, gentle, yet troubled soul."
Burns' battled mental health and addiction issues.
Her mother Mary Tyrell said she keeps a poem her daughter wrote for her with her at all times, and remembers how they planted lilies the last time she saw her.
"There is no way I can put into words how to describe the pain and anguish," Tyrell wrote. "To lose a daughter is bad enough, but to hear how she died will haunt me to my dying day."
A jury found McDonald guilty of first degree murder in 2012.
He appealed that verdict and it was overturned by the Ontario Court of Appeal.
A re-trial on the first degree murder charge was supposed to start next week in Owen Sound, moved there to help secure a jury not tainted by initial trial coverage in Guelph.
"I'm sorry for my actions," was the lone sentence McDonald spoke when asked if he had anything to say.
Dressed in blue jeans, a blue jacket and wearing glasses, the short, stocky, bald man spent the rest of the proceedings staring at the floor or straight ahead.
Burns' mother, sister and uncle sat quietly in the gallery. They politely declined any comment other than their submitted victim impact statements.
In an agreed statement of facts between the defence and prosecution, it was admitted that McDonald had hit Burns several times in the head, but that it was "the blows to her head in combination with ingestion of cocaine that led the her death," not the blows alone.
The expert opinion that the cocaine played a role in her death is what led to a guilty plea of manslaughter rather than a re-trial.
Burns met up with McDonald sometime on May 24, 2008. Her body was found three days later just off a path in Norm Jary Park, discovered by a Grade 8 student playing hide and seek.
Her body was naked, there was evidence of sexual activity, and she was positioned in a compromising manner before being partially covered in dirt and brush.
McDonald's defence lawyer, Phil Campbell, said he wanted to contest the "allegation" that his client "intended to cause the death" of Burns.
"He did not," Campbell stated.
Justice Durno said he "can not turn back the clock. No sentence can undo the devastating loss of Corrine Burns."
McDonald will also be subject to a long-term supervision order following his release.
McDonald's defence lawyer commented that his client is receiving treatment while incarcerated to deal with his anger issues that stem in part from a "strong sense of abandonment" and alcohol abuse.
