Halifax woman convicted of helping killer will be deported to St. Vincent

A woman convicted of helping a Halifax killer fleefrom policein 2014 will be deported back to the Caribbean country ofSt. Vincent, where she has not lived since she was nine years old.

Last yeara judge ruled that Debra Jane Spencer was in the room when her then-boyfriend, Bradford Eugene Beals, killed David William Rose in a rooming house on Inglis Street. Bealspleaded guilty earlier this year to manslaughter and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Spencer had pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact.She was sentenced to two years inprison and did not file anappeal in the 25-day window that followed. The conviction breachedher immigration status.

Spencer was born in 1984 and moved to Canada in 1993 with an adoptive parent. According to court documents, she graduated from a Yarmouth high schooland later moved to Halifax.

On Oct. 5, 2015, shefiled a request with the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal to extend the time to appeal her sentence because she says "during the criminal proceeding, she was unaware of the prospect of deportation."

In a decision released Wednesday,Justice JoelFichauddeniedSpencer's request.To have it granted, he says she would need to persuade the court to reduce her sentence to six months or less.

"In Ms. Spencer's case, a reduction from two years to six months would drop her sentence far below the range of fit sentences for being an accessory to murder," writes Fichaud.

"There is no possibility that a panel of this court would order that reduction."