Teen sentenced as adult for beating death of Edmonton father in 2011

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EDMONTON – A man who was two days shy of his 18th birthday when he fatally beat an Edmonton father in front of his toddler has been sentenced as an adult.

Chase Paul earlier pleaded guilty as a youth to second-degree murder in the 2011 death of John Kwiatkowski.

Court heard Paul ran away from a youth centre in Regina and travelled to Edmonton in a series of stolen vehicles.

He got drunk and, planning to steal from cars and houses, walked into Kwiatkowski’s unlocked home and beat the man with a metal pipe as he was sleeping.

Paul accidentally struck Kwiatkowski’s two-year-old daughter with the pipe when she walked in on the beating.

Paul, who is now 22, automatically gets a life sentence and is eligible for parole after serving seven years.

Nick Kwiatkowski says he was focused on hating Paul for the death of his brother but listened as the killer told court about his troubled upbringing.

“Hearing what happened in his life, from his own mouth, kind of throws a different spin on things,” he said.

“I feel bad for him but, at the same time, like I said before, he made his decision on what he wanted to do that night and he’s got to live with it. And unfortunately so do all of us.”