Jeffrey Salomonie sentenced to life for murder of Daisy Curley

A Cape Dorset man found guilty of first-degree murder for killing a 33-year-old Iqaluit woman was handed a life sentence Thursday morning at the Nunavut Court of Justice in Iqaluit.

Jeffrey Salomonie was convicted Monday of killing Daisy Curley.Curleywas found brutally beaten to death in her mother's house in Iqaluitin May 2009.

A first-degree murder conviction comes with an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years.

The court heard emotional victim impact statements from Curley's father who spoke by phone from Arviat, Nunavut, and from Curley's motherwho sat in the courtroom. She often brokedown in tears as she spoke about her daughter, who leftbehind a daughter of her own and a grandson.

Curley's motherdescribed having to repair holes in the floor and cleanup blood stainsleft in her house where her daughter was found murdered nearly seven years ago.

"I cleaned up the blood splatters that Jeffrey left," she said.

"He caused it. I cleaned it up."

About a dozen of Curley's family members attended the sentencing, consoling one another.

At one point, Curley's mother took out a photo ofCurley's grandson, born six months after her death.

She also spoke about finding out that she had been on the same flight as Salomoniewhen he was being transferred following his arrest.

'Women will be safe'

"We will never likely know with any precision what happened that night,"saidJustice Neil Sharkey before handing down the sentence.

"What we do know with some certainty is that the women of Nunavut, any unfortunate women who might otherwise have the misfortune of mere circumstanceto be inthe company of Jeffrey Salomonie when he is fuelled up and drunk,we know that these women will be safe from him because of the sentence he will receive today."

When it was his turn to speak, Salomoniesaid only that he prays for the Curley family every day.

Salomonie was credited for the time he has spent in custodysince his arrestin 2011. He has about 20 years left to serve in prison before becoming eligible for parole.