The sentencing hearing of Michael MacPherson for the 2014 stabbing death of 27-year-old Tanner Sinclair continued Tuesday afternoon with more victim impact statements from the family.

Originally charged with second-degree murder, the 35-year-old MacPherson pleaded guilty earlier this month to manslaughter, just weeks before the murder trial was scheduled to begin.

The plea to the lesser charge of manslaughter has angered the Sinclair family, some of whom travelled to Whitehorse from Alberta to read victim impact statements to the court.

The sentencing hearing began Tuesday morning in Yukon Supreme Court before Justice Leigh Gower.

Sinclair’s mother, Wendy Sinclair of Alberta, presented an emotional statement to the court late Tuesday morning, punctuated frequently by sobbing as she described the deep bond she had with her son.

He would call everyday, sometimes twice a day to say hi and chat, she told the court.

Sinclair said there is not enough paper in the world to describe in writing the loss she and the family have suffered.

They raised their children to be kind and to not hurt anyone, and her son was a hard-working man and a loving father who always had time to help those who needed help, she told the court.

Sinclair said her first thought every morning is about her son, and she’s cried every day since her boy was taken from her.

“The pain is still great,” she said. “Every day is a struggle.”

Whitney Sandulak, Sinclair’s widowed spouse and the mother of his two young daughters, one of whom was born two months after her father’s death, followed Sinclair’s mother with her victim impact statement.

Victim impact statements were read after lunch by Sandulak’s mother, Sandulak’s niece, the deceased’s sister and his father.

They all told of immense pain and loss that has affected their lives deeply and will live on forever.

The sentencing hearing continued this morning with submissions from Crown prosecutor Eric Marcoux.

Defence lawyer Ray Dieno of Victoria was expected to begin his submissions this afternoon.

The Crown is seeking a term in prison of eight to 10 years.

There have been as many as 30 or so people in the courtroom to hear submissions.

All the while, MacPherson has sat motionless, escorted in and out of the holding cells by two RCMP officers who’ve remained in court throughout the proceedings.

An agreed statement of facts presented to the court when MacPherson pleaded guilty Feb. 1 indicated there was tension between MacPherson and Sinclair about a truck MacPherson had obtained from Sinclair.

MacPherson was attending a barbecue at the home of Kory Basaraba in Copper Ridge on July 14 when they decided to go to The Ridge pub later in the night. After being called by Basaraba, Sinclair joined them a short time later.

Security footage from The Ridge was presented by the Crown.

Commenting out loud for the court record as he watched the video recording, Justice Gower noted everybody seemed to be getting along fine.

As he watched footage from the parking lot recorded a short time later, Gower said there appeared to be some signs of aggression from Sinclair toward MacPherson, with MacPherson looking like he was running away.

After returning to Basaraba’s house, Sinclair and MacPherson were in the backyard at around midnight with a couple of others sitting at the patio table.

“By all accounts, everything seemed to be going well until Mr. MacPherson began making comments about the truck that Mr. Sinclair sold him,” reads the agreed statement of facts.

“Mr. Sinclair made a remark to the effect that he should just knock Mr. MacPherson out, to which Mr. MacPherson replied, ‘Just do it.’”

A fight ensued, and Sinclair was stabbed five times with a knife that had been left out.

The agreed statement of facts points out Basaraba’s truck had broken down earlier in the day so he’d had to clean the tools from his truck and bring them home. He had transferred his tools into the garage, but for the knife that was left on the patio table.

An eyewitness to the struggle heard Sinclair being stabbed, and heard him say “enough” and “he is stabbing me,” says the statement of facts.

The Crown prosecutor told the court Tuesday the stab wounds to the torso caused internal injuries to the left lung, spleen, left kidney, liver and aorta.

The wounds varied in depth from 14 to 16 centimetres to the left chest to six centimetres on the upper back, Marcoux said.

Sinclair’s widowed spouse told the court that after conferring with doctors at Whitehorse General Hospital, she agreed to have Sinclair taken off life support at 5:36 a.m. July 15.

It was at the moment that the life sentence for her and her daughters began, with no chance of parole ever, Whitney Sandulak told the court.

She described how her young daughter of just under three at the time kept asking when Daddy was coming home.

She recalled the day the RCMP brought home Tanner’s truck which had been parked at Basaraba’s, with her daughter declaring that Daddy was home after hearing the diesel-engined vehicle pull into the driveway.

Sandulak described MacPherson as a coward who would never measure up to the man Tanner Sinclair was. She said it was a cowardly act to use the knife.

Brent Sinclair, Tanner’s father, remembered how when Tanner was born he felt he would have a friend for life.

All that was taken away by a senseless act of violence, he said in reading his victim impact statement.

He said his son was stabbed five times and was left fighting for his life.

“Unless you have a child taken from you in this way, you have no way of feeling the anger, the pain ... that I felt,” he said.

He remembers the phone call from Whitney telling him his son had died.

“Those words are as fresh in my mind today as the moment she spoke them,” he said.

Sinclair also told the court the country’s legal system is flawed, with no room to consider the impact of crime on victims.

“You are a burden to society, Mr. MacPherson,” Sinclair concluded.

Following the stabbing, MacPherson fled Whitehorse. He was on the run for 10 days before turning himself in to police in Victoria.

He was released on $25,000 bail in May 2015 but was taken back into custody early last month for violating his release conditions.

A search turned up opioid drugs in his possession, along with a bottle of clean urine.