Dean Penney to be sentenced for 1st-degree murder of Jennifer Hillier-Penney
Dean Penney was found guilty of first-degree murder in May, nine years after his estranged wife disappeared from St. Anthony. He will be sentenced on Friday to the mandatory punishment for first-degree murder in Canada — life without parole for 25 years. (Colleen Connors/CBC)Social SharingDean Penney — the man convicted of first-degree murder in the 2016 disappearance of his estranged wife, Jennifer Hillier-Penney — is expected to be sentenced to life without parole for 25 years on Friday in a Corner Brook courtroom.
Penney's case will be called for a sentencing hearing at 10 a.m. in the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador.
While the sentence is mandatory, the hearing will give Hillier-Penney's family a chance to read victim impact statements describing how they were affected by the murder and disappearance of their loved one.
Hillier-Penney was last seen on Nov. 30, 2016. She disappeared from the home she used to share with Penney, where they lived with their two daughters.
Penney maintained his innocence throughout the trial, but the jury watched videos of him confessing — twice — to undercover police officers posing as a criminal organization in what's known as a Mr. Big sting.
Penney argued he was intimidated by the organization throughout the operation that spanned more than four years. He testified that he told the fake crime boss what he wanted to hear during the two interviews that resulted in confessions.
The jurors decided otherwise, returning from five days of deliberations with a guilty verdict.
The Crown contended throughout the trial that Penney was motivated by jealousy after his wife left him. They argued his actions leading up to the killing showed Hillier-Penney was killed in a planned and deliberate act of murder.
The trial spanned eight weeks and featured stunning testimony from undercover police officers, including one who befriended Penney over the course of the four-year operation. The officer, known by the pseudonym Vic, told the court he got so close to Penney that he hoped the investigation would prove his innocence.
That wasn't the case. Instead, Penney told the fake crime boss about how he pushed Hillier-Penney over the stairs in the garage. He said she struck her head off the corner of his gun safe. In his second confession, Penney said he bludgeoned her to death as she lay unconscious on the floor.
Penney said he wrapped the body and dumped her in the ocean near his cabin. Searches have been ongoing for years, but have not turned up any results.
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Ryan Cooke is a justice affairs reporter based in St. John's. He can be reached at ryan.cooke@cbc.ca.
