A Victoria man who was on parole for first-degree murder has been sentenced to four-and-a-half years for an attack the judge describes as "savage and cowardly."
Sixty-one year-old George Earl Storry was convicted in July of aggravated assault in last year's beating of Chris Gibson, a tenant at a Victoria rooming house where Storry worked as building manager.
During a dispute over rent, Storry recruited co-accused Russell Meredith, and both went to Gibson's suite carrying baseball bats. The two accused then beat Gibson severely, causing significant head lacerations, a broken arm, and a broken elbow.
Meredith pleaded guilty to aggravated assault earlier this year, and was sentenced to thirty months in prison. In delivering a four-and-a-half year sentence for Storry today, the judge said his role as leader in the attack and his long criminal history warranted a longer sentence than Meredith's. With time served, Storry has been ordered to spend another 27 months and 24 days in custody.
Storry was sentenced to life in prison in 1988 for first-degree murder. He had been on full parole for eleven months when Gibson was attacked.