Devlin Glasgow must serve minimum of 16 years for murder of Matthew Sudds, court rules

Ten years after Matthew Sudds was murdered on the side of a road overlooking the Bedford Basin, one of the men convicted for his death has finally been sentenced.

Devlin Tyson Glasgow, 37, was convicted of second-degree murder following a jury trial earlier this year.

The conviction carries an automatic life sentence, but on Tuesday, a judge set the minimum amount of time Glasgow must serve in prison before he can begin applying for parole. Justice Joshua Arnold of the Nova Scotia Supreme Court set that minimum at 16 years. With credit for time already served, Glasgow faces at least 12 more years in prison.

Sudds was last seen alive on Oct. 10, 2013, getting into a black Dodge Charger in the parking lot of a fast-food restaurant on Young Street in north-end Halifax. Evidence from court proceedings show Glasgow and another man, Ricardo Whynder, were in the car.

Four days after Sudds disappeared, a woman out walking her dog discovered Sudds’s body in a ditch on the Africville Road. He had been shot twice; once in the head.

Glasgow was arrested in October 2019 in British Columbia, where he was serving time for other offences. He has been in custody ever since.

Four people submitted victim impact statements before parole eligibility was set.

Sudds’s cousin, Cynthia Rigby, described the trauma and anxiety the murder has caused her and members of her family. She said it’s been “extremely painful” to live through the lengthy court proceedings for Glasgow and Whynder.

Whynder was arrested in 2017 and charged with first-degree murder in Sudds’s death. He was convicted of second-degree murder following a jury trial later that same year, but that conviction was overturned on appeal. Whynder was convicted of manslaughter following a second trial earlier this year. Crown lawyers are working to have Whynder declared a dangerous offender and locked up indefinitely. Arguments in that process are scheduled for the new year.

Matthew’s mother, Darlene Sudds, submitted a victim impact statement that was read into the record by Crown prosecutor Sean McCarroll.  She described how she “shut down” after she learned of her son’s murder and was feeling lost, empty and hurt.

‘Destroyed’ family life

“They [Whynder and Glasgow] destroyed not only my life but my family’s life as well,” Darlene Sudds said. Outside court, Darlene Sudds described the process as “long and miserable”.

Another cousin and a close family friend who was Matthew’s godmother also submitted statements describing their loss.

McCarroll asked that Glasgow have to serve a minimum of 17 years before he can begin applying for parole. Glasgow’s lawyer, Sid Freeman of Toronto, asked for 15. Freeman said Glasgow’s record was not as bad as Whynder’s and there were lengthy periods when Glasgow was not offending at all. She also asked Justice Joshua Arnold to consider that, as a Black man, Glasgow will face racism and greater hardship in prison.

Arnold relied heavily on details in an impact of race and culture assessment that had been prepared for Glasgow. It spoke of his difficult childhood and early exposure to crime and violence. Glasgow has been shot twice in his life and one of those bullets is still lodged in his head. He told the authors of the assessment that he hopes he can serve his sentence in a prison in British Columbia so he can be close to his mother. He also wants to avail himself of prison training programs in the hopes of becoming an electrician.

Arnold stressed that Glasgow could spend the rest of his life in prison; that the 16-year mark is only when he can begin applying for parole.