A North Thompson woman who shot her husband to death while camping nearly three years ago — a slaying described by a judge as an “inexplicable” act of domestic violence — has been ordered to spend a decade in prison.
Ashleigh Tschritter, 33, was convicted of manslaughter by a jury in December following a trial in B.C. Supreme Court.
She shot her husband, David Simpson, with a shotgun on Sept. 6, 2020, at a campsite off a forest service road near Vavenby, east of Clearwater on Highway 5.
Court heard Tschritter and Simpson were arguing before the fatal shot was fired. An eyewitness testified that he saw Tschritter retrieve a shotgun and kill Simpson, then stomp on his head.
That witness, Gary Flowers, said Tschritter’s demeanour changed when Simpson mentioned another woman.
Tschritter was charged with second-degree murder and convicted of the lesser-included offence of manslaughter, meaning the jury found she killed Simpson but not that she intended to. Jurors also rejected her claim in the moments after the slaying that Simpson killed himself.
Autopsy evidence determined Simpson was shot at close range — but not close enough to have been self-inflicted.
Prosecutors had been seeking a sentence in the range of 10 to 12 years, while Tschritter’s defence lawyer sought a sentence of three to six years.
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Joel Groves sentenced Tschritter to 10 years in prison.
“She took her husband’s life because he said something she didn’t like,” Groves said. "That is inexplicable.”
Groves cited the lasting impact of the shooting on Tschritter and Simpson’s three children, who were present at the time.
The oldest child, who recently turned 10, tried unsuccessfully to help Tschritter move his dad’s body. Another child tried to wake up Simpson following the shooting and became covered in his blood. Each of the kids suffers nightmares as a result and wakes up screaming.
“They are permanently scarred,” Groves said. "They will carry these scars for the rest of their lives."
At trial, defence lawyer Bobby Movassaghi tried to pin the shooting on Flowers. In his decision on Friday, Groves called that a “desperate strategy."
“It did not appear to be supported by any evidence,” the judge said.
Tschritter has a serious but dated criminal record including a number of previous convictions for violent offences, including assault with a weapon, aggravated assault and robbery.
She spent more than a year in pre-trial custody before being released on bail in November of 2021 and is entitled to nearly two years of credit for time served, leaving a little more than eight years of new time.
In addition to the prison sentence, Tschritter was ordered to submit a sample of her DNA to a national criminal database and issued a lifetime firearms prohibition.
