Baylee Wylie's murder derailed family who loved him, sentencing hears

In an emotional victim impact statement, Angela Wylie recalled the intensity of receiving the news her nephew Baylee Wylie had been murdered in Moncton in December 2015.

In tears, she asked a Moncton court on Wednesday to imagine "telling my sister that her baby is gone."

Wylie read the statement at the sentencing hearing for Tyler Noel, who pleaded guilty earlier to second-degree murder and to arson with disregard for human life in the death of the 18-year-old.

Wylie was bound in plastic wrap, severely beaten while tied to a chair and stabbed numerous times before his killers set fire to the building he was in.

Noel's conviction comes with an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for at least 10 years.

Judge Stephen McNally is expected to deliver his sentence on Thursday at 1:30 p.m.

Forgot to breathe

As Noel, 20, watched her read the statement, Angela Wylie said her nephew's death affected her life and work.

She needed medication, was hospitalized and moved back home at 37 years old. The "paralyzing" pain over Wylie's death was so bad she would forget how to breathe, she said.

"There's an ever-present hole," she said.

Baylee Wylie's mother, Amanda Wylie, attended the hearing but did not read her victim's statement.

Earlier in the day, autopsy photos revealed how her son suffered more than 100 injuries, including stab wounds to his neck and chest, the night he was murdered.

Highlighting Wylie's age and the length of the attack, Crown prosecutor Annie St. Jacques called his murder brutal and unprovoked.

She said Noel has not been a productive member of society and asked he not be eligible for parole for 20 to 25 years.

St. Jacques also asked that he be banned for life from owning a firearm and ordered to stay away from the Wylie family.

Defence lawyer Martin Goguen said Noel had a troubled upbringing, experienced physical and sexual abuse and has a history of drug abuse. He was young at the time of the murder, Goguen said.

His "propensity to violence is low,"  and he was not the only one involved in Wylie's murder.

Devin Morningstar, 19, was convicted of first-degree murder after a four-week trial last year.

Marissa Shephard, 21, is in custody awaiting trial in February 2018 on charges of first-degree murder and arson.

'They were friends'

Goguen said it remains unknown how long the attack on Wylie lasted, and little planning went into it.

At Noel's earlier court appearance, Crown prosecutor Eric Lalonde described a 24-hour period of drug taking, sex, and the beating and eventual killing of Wylie, which followed an argument in which Wylie threatened to go to the police to report both Morningstar and Noel for selling drugs and to report a hidden gun.

But when the group woke up that morning "they were friends," Goguen said. "Everyone was impaired, things were said."

He added that there was no sexual undertone in Wylie's murder, and referred to other cases where the murderer dismembered the body of the victim, which Noel did not do.

Goguen said the length of time before parole eligibility the Crown proposed would be the highest ever in New Brunswick. He asked it be set to 12 years instead, without credit for time spent in remand.

'Stupid and wrong'

Reading a written statement, Noel apologized to Wylie's family and others affected by his actions that night.,

He said he was "asking for forgiveness someday" and that he will forever remember that night, calling his actions "and wrong."

Earlier, Amanda Wylie wept as a pathologist described what was done to her son, and she eventually left the courtroom.

Dr. Ather Naseemuddin, a specialist in anatomic pathology who was the first witness Wednesday, said Wylie suffered 35 injuries to his neck, including stab wounds of varying depths.

Any of these injuries could have killed the decedent.- Ather Naseemuddin, pathologist

​Naseemuddin, who is based at the Saint John Regional Hospital, where he has performed forensic autopsies for seven years, said any of the 18 injuries he found on the upper right area of Wylie's body could have killed him.

Four wounds penetrated his chest, which would have collapsed the lung and also could have been fatal.

Naseemuddin said there were neck wounds, a collapsed lung, a punctured heart and multiple injuries to the liver.

The pathologist said he was unable to determine the order the injuries occurred, or which one caused his death.

"Any of these injuries could have killed the decedent," he said.

He said the teen's lower legs were discoloured to a dark brown, likely from smoke, soot and burns. A fishing line was wrapped around his toe.

There were also multiple injuries to his head and signs of blunt force injuries that were not fatal.

Wylie's body was found in a burned-out triplex on Sumac Street. As a result, about 15 per cent of his body's surface suffered second and third-degree burns. 

Noel went on the run after the slaying, and a Canada-wide warrant was issued for him in late December. He was caught nearly two weeks later after the RCMP received complaints about three young men being in a cottage in Elgin that didn't belong to them.

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