Youth's manslaughter sentence challenged on appeal

A Calgary youth's sentence for the fatal stabbing of 18-year-old Danillo Canales Glenn exceeded the legal maximum, his lawyer argued Tuesday before the Alberta Court of Appeal.

Defence counsel Connor Sprague said Justice Eleanor Funk should not have handed his client, now 18, a total term exceeding three years when crediting his pre-trial custody.

The offender spent 25 months at the Calgary Young Offender Centre before Funk's sentencing decision on October 7, 2025. Funk found him guilty of manslaughter and ordered him to serve 12 more months in custody followed by six months under community supervision.

Sprague argued his client should have received full day-for-day credit for his pre-sentencing remand time. Under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, the maximum sentence for manslaughter is three years — two years of custody and one under community supervision. "A day is a day," Sprague told the appeal judges. "If the sentence you're imposing, plus the pre-trial credit, exceeds the maximum, you can't do it."

Funk had ruled the maximum sentence was warranted but granted the offender only 18 months credit for his remand time, meaning the additional 12 months of custody pushed the total beyond what the law allows for youth offenders.

Appeal Crown Tom Spark argued Funk was entitled to grant less than one-for-one credit for remand time. He emphasized the gravity of the crime: the offender was 16 when he and his adult brother jumped the boards of an outdoor rink on September 5, 2023, where Canales Glenn and two friends were shooting hoops. One pepper-sprayed the victim; the other stabbed him.

The offender's older brother, who cannot be named to protect his sibling's identity under the YCJA, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and is awaiting sentencing. The appeal has now adjourned.