'Your place is gonna burn': Man who beat neighbour to death and burned down his house gets 14 years

A Surrey man who beat his neighbour to death for no apparent reason and then set the dead man's house on fire, nearly killing the victim's fiancée, has been sentenced to 14 years in prison.

Robert Jones, 33, used a baseball bat to bash Randy MacKay in the head and upper body until he was dead, then poured gasoline on MacKay's body and set his home ablaze. MacKay's fiancée, Dahna Wran, narrowly managed to escape the burning building.

Jones has pleaded guilty and was sentenced this month to 10 years for manslaughter and another four for arson.

"There is no sentence that will compensate Mr. MacKay's family and friends for the life that was taken from them on Sept. 7, 2017," Provincial Court Judge Alexander Wolf wrote in his reasons for sentence.

"There is no sentence that will help Mr. Jones mend the broken ties with his seven-year-old son who will not have his father next to his side to support him through the next number of years of his life."

With credit for time served, Jones's sentence will be reduced by two years.

Despite Jones's conviction for manslaughter, Wolf described the horrific crime as a "very near murder" and said Jones was "extremely culpable."

No motive for attack

The court heard that the fatal encounter began when Jones told MacKay and Wran that their yard was too messy, and warned them, "you have a week to clean this place up or it's gonna burn." The only possible explanation for that comment was Jones's severe drunkenness, the judge said — the lawn looked just fine in photos from the scene.

The couple asked him to leave, but as Jones walked away, he escalated his threat, promising, "your place is going to burn in 20 minutes. It's gonna burn to the ground."

Jones walked across the street to his house, grabbed a baseball bat and a jerry can filled with gasoline and returned, according to court documents. When MacKay saw what was happening, he found a collectible samurai sword inside his own house, so he could defend himself, while Wran hid in a bedroom.

Tragically, MacKay was unable to fight off his drunken neighbour. While he was lying dead on the living room floor, Jones poured gasoline on his body and the living room floor.

"The accused would not have known if Mr. MacKay was alive or dead. He should have known that Ms. Wran, the deceased's fiancée, was still in the house. The accused lit the gasoline on fire and went back to his house across the street," Wolf wrote.

Wran managed to escape through a bedroom window.

'Her one true love in life was taken'

In a victim impact statement, she said she had pleaded with Jones to stop what he was doing, but he didn't listen to her.

"She told the court that 'every aspect of my life has been affected.' Her work, her home, her future. All her possessions were lost in the fire. Her one true love in life was taken by Mr. Jones," Wolf wrote.

After his arrest, Jones told a psychiatrist he felt "really bad" for MacKay's family but he couldn't offer a motivation for why he killed the other man. Jones has no criminal history and no mental health issues, according to the judge.

He did lose his mother in a fire when he was just six years old, but people who know him have described him as "usually fairly passive" and easy to get along with.

During a sentencing hearing, Jones addressed the court, saying, "I am sorry. I never meant for anything bad to happen that day. It is all my fault."

As part of his sentence, he will have to provide a DNA sample. He is also banned for life from possessing firearms.