By Red Deer Advocate Staff
An aboriginal gang member was sentenced Monday to 13 years in jail for a drive-by shooting at a Hobbema reserve that injured a toddler in 2008.
Christopher Shane Crane, 20, will serve another nine years in jail for the shooting of the little girl and a separate incident three hours earlier in a home invasion on the Samson reserve of 12,000 people.
Provincial court judge Thomas Schollie gave Crane four years credit for the two years he has served in remand since the shooting.
Crane pleaded guilty last march to four charges and 12 others were withdrawn Monday in Wetaskiwin provincial court.
Nicole Saddleback, mother of the toddler who was shot, said she can live with the sentence in hopes that it sends a message to gang members in Hobbema.
Her daughter Asia, now almost four, was shot in the chest in April 2008. The bullet remains lodged just centimeters from her heart.
Saddleback said her daughter will have to live with this for the rest of her life because the bullet is too close to her heart to be removed through surgery.
Asia, her mother, grandmother and a number of other family members were present in court for sentencing.
Crane appeared agitated in the prisoners box during the proceeding, but did not speak when the sentence was announced.
Crown prosecutor Rod Clark said he hopes the sentence acts as a deterrent and that no community should have to put up with this kind of violence.