Randy Canister was sentenced Friday to three life terms in prison seven years after a triple slaying in which the victims, including a lone survivor, were stripped naked, assaulted and abused before being shot execution style.
The survivor, who is paralyzed, testified from a wheelchair, asking Arapahoe District Court Judge Robert Russell to impose the harshest sentence possible.
“No one understands what it is like for a life to be taken and you have to live on,” she said. “A lot of times I hate the fact that I have survived.”
The surviving victim was raped during the Sept. 10, 1998, ordeal, and in keeping with Denver Post policy will not be named.
The killings occurred during an apparent drug deal. The gunmen burst into an Aurora apartment and shot in the head David Howard, 17, Naomi Prince, 18, and Paul Stone, 18. The rape victim was shot five times and left to die.
The woman, dressed in bluejeans and a white T-shirt, addressed the court for about 20 minutes. Her testimony was clear and steady for the most part, but when she spoke about the younger siblings of the dead, her voice quivered and she fought off tears.
“The kids, he has really affected them in such a way that they don’t care about life,” she said.
Prosecutors had sought the death penalty in Canister’s case, but a U.S. Supreme Court ruling delayed his sentencing.
On June 24, 2002, in the middle of Canister’s trial, the Supreme Court ruled that only juries can sentence convicted criminals to death. That set aside Colorado’s statutory method of imposing the death penalty by a three-judge panel.
The Colorado Supreme Court ruled in April that Canister could not be executed.
“I don’t feel the life term is justice,” the survivor told the court. She supported a death sentence.
Canister, 28, apologized to the survivor and family members, turning toward the gallery and saying he “values life.”
Two other men, Dante Lamar Owens and Trevon Deon Washington, received life sentences in the case.
Canister also said he is innocent of murder, despite the conviction.
“I know in my heart and before God that I never killed (anyone),” he said.
Staff writer Kieran Nicholson can be reached at 303 820-1822 or knicholson@denverpost.com.