A man charged in the fatal stabbing of Maple Ridge man will spend four more years in prison.
Andrew Edwin Robert Leach was handed the sentence Monday in New Westminster Supreme Court and was credited with double time for the two years he has spent in custody for a total sentence of eight years.
Initially charged with second degree murder, Leach pleaded guilty to the lesser offence of manslaughter in September.
Leach, now 28, was charged with second-degree murder on Sept. 30., 2009, five days after the body of James William Ball was found at a Safeway in the 20200-block of Lougheed Highway in Maple Ridge by a delivery driver around 6:15 a.m.
Ball, who had the nickname ‘Chief’, was lying in the loading dock area, bleeding from significant stab wounds.
The 43-year-old Maple Ridge man was transported to Ridge Meadows Hospital, where he died.
RCMP later determined that Ball and Leach had both been at Club Climax, on 207th Street, that night. The strip club is just a few blocks from Safeway.
Police said the murder was not linked to drugs, gangs or organized crime, but a dispute between the men.
Leach, a Coquitlam resident, has no criminal history until he was charged with murder.