Blog : Ragazou

By JTA (CJN)

The ex-convict who killed a Canadian Jewish leader in Barbados last year has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Curtis Joel Foster, 25, was sentenced March 23 in a Barbados court for killing Terry Schwarzfeld, who had just started her term as president of Canadian Hadassah WIZO and was executive director of Ottawa's largest synagogue, Agudath Israel.

Originally charged with murder Foster, who had eight prior criminal convictions, pleaded guilty in January to manslaughter. Prosecutors said they accepted the plea because they were convinced a jury would not find that he intended to kill Schwarzfeld. Prosecutors had asked for a sentence of 16 to 20 years.

Schwarzfeld and her daughter-in-law, vacationing in Barbados, were walking on a secluded beach on Feb. 28, 2009, when Foster waved a gun at them and demanded money. When the women said they had none, Foster retrieved a piece of wood and chased them. He hit Schwarzfeld, 60, on the back of her head, then attacked her daughter-in-law, Luana Cotsman.

Cotsman survived, but Schwarzfeld never regained consciousness. She died of brain injuries on March 18, 2009, two weeks after being airlifted to a hospital in Ottawa.

In a 1,600-word victim impact statement submitted to the court, Schwarzfeld's husband, Stephen Cotsman, said on behalf of the family that ?we have truly lost an amazing person ? someone who was larger than life and beloved by many' That is why our grief is so deep, so cutting and why it is so very hard for all of us to get on with our lives.?