Jacob Forman, 35, was brought to justice and sentenced to life in prison for brutally killing his wife and two young children.
Forman confessed to killing his wife, Clara, after the couple got into an argument about his drinking while at their home in Kelowna, British Columbia. She was killed after he hit her in the head several times with a sledgehammer, according to the prosecutor and Forman’s confession. which was read in court earlier this week.
The couple’s daughters, aged 7 and 8, heard their mom screaming and came to see what was going on. Forman told them that she was sick and later took them to church.
That evening, Forman had his children get dressed in their pajamas and asked if they wanted to “play a game.” He ultimately strangled both his children, killing daughters Yesenia and Karina.
“He said [to police], he thought it would be better for them to go home to heaven than to grow up in a world where daddy had killed mommy,” said prosecutor Murray Kaay at the B.C. Supreme Court.
Forman went to work in the days following the horrific crime. Finally, his wife and children’s bodies were discovered by police after a friend reported Clara missing.
In the middle of the trial, Forman changed his plea to guilty.
Justice Allan Betton sentenced Forman to mandatory life in prison for murder, reported the Canadian Press.
Before sentencing, Clara’s sister April spoke in court, saying, “We don’t look at Jacob as only a perpetrator. We look at Jacob as a person going through this with us, with an enormous amount of pain that we can’t even understand.”
Defense attorney, Raymond Dieno, claimed that Forman’s acute alcoholism played a part in the crime.