THE MAN paroled for the 1998 second degree murder of a woman here has been arrested again.
Christopher Alexander, now 34, was arrested by Abbotsford police in June after a warrant for breaching his parole was issued by federal corrections officials.
He’s been in custody since, awaiting either a review of his file by federal parole officials or a full-scale hearing by the Parole Board of Canada.
What Alexander is accused of doing won’t be known until a review is done or a hearing is held and a decision on his future is determined and released.
Following his parole last year, Alexander was living in a half-way house and working on a farm which employees parolees.
His conditions included a ban on using social media.
News of Alexander’s arrest isn’t surprising to Anita Johnstone, the sister of murder victim Linda LeFranc, who spent the past weeks drafting a statement to be presented to parole officials.
She’s consistently opposed Alexander’s attempts at either limited or broader parole after he was jailed for life following a trial in 2002.
Johnstone said Alexander has never taken responsibility for her sister’s murder.
“My hope is that they will not be lenient on him. Alexander needs to do the work required to address the deep-seated psychological issues which we have said all along have not been acknowledged or addressed,” she said.
“Having said that, after this many years is he capable of change? I think not.”
One of the issues is the lack of resources provided to properly monitor people out on parole, Johnstone continued.
She said Alexander acts on impulse without understanding the consequences.
“He wants what he wants when he wants it,” Johnstone said.
After a parolee is arrested, a 90-day clock starts as to deciding what should happen next.
That Alexander remains in custody while the 90-day clock ticks down is significant, Johnstone added.
Before his parole, Alexander was living in an aboriginal healing village in the Fraser Valley within the Correctional Service of Canada system and able to go on short term unsupervised leaves.
Alexander was 17 years old in December 1998 when he broke into LeFranc’s southside townhouse, stabbing her 83 times with a knife taken from the kitchen.
Arrested in late 1999 following an extensive RCMP undercover operation in which an officer posing as the “Mr. Big” of a criminal gang got Alexander to admit to the murder, he was sentenced following a trial here in 2002.
Originally charged with first degree murder, Alexander was convicted of second degree murder.
He was a neighbour to LeFranc who was 36 when she was killed. Her seven-year-old daughter was in the house at the time.
