North Bay man sentenced for grisly 2021 murder

Carter Parypa was sentenced to life in prison with no parole for at least 10 years Thursday in North Bay for the 2021 murder of a 60-year-old man.

Warning: Some details of this story are disturbing and may be upsetting to some readers.

Carter Parypa was sentenced to life in prison Thursday in North Bay for the 2021 second-degree murder of a 60-year-old man.

Parypa, wearing a long-sleeved blue shirt and navy blue pants, was also sentenced for committing indignity to a human body for dismembering the remains of Bradley Armstrong using a machete.

For killing Armstrong at his apartment on March 20, 2021, Parypa was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole for at least 10 years, a joint submission by the Crown and defence.

He is also subject to a lifetime weapons prohibition and required to provide a DNA sample.

The court heard that Parypa has no previous criminal record. Throughout his teen and adult life, he has dealt with drug addiction and mental health challenges.

He turned himself in to the police after the crime and provided voluntary statements about what he had done. He has spent considerable time in custody, transferring back and forth from various prisons, and was once seriously injured after he was attacked while in jail.

The murder occurred after he joined the victim to do drugs. Parypa requested a mental health exam and said that his drug addiction made him psychotic.

At the time, he was suffering various symptoms, including substance abuse disorder, major depressive disorder and PTSD.

Parypa said he blacked out and when he came to, he found Armstrong’s body on the floor and realized what he had done.

He followed what he had seen on TV shows to dismember and get rid of the body.

He showed remorse for what he had done and by pleading guilty, Parypa spared Armstrong’s family from having to see photos of the horrific crime scene in open court.

Justice Andrew Goodman said the crime scene was the worst he had ever dealt with.

“This scene, an act of dismemberment, is the most horrific, gruesome act of violence in my 15 years as a judge,” Goodman said.

The judge recommended Parypa serve his sentence at the Regional Treatment Centre at Millhaven Institution, a maximum security facility in Bath, Ont.

That’s because Millhaven has treatment programs for addiction and mental health.

Defence lawyer Luba Szkambara said she hopes her client is sent to Millhaven, where he can get help for his drug and mental health problems.

“If we focused on addressing those issues, we would have to focus a bit less on what comes through the criminal courts,” Szkambara said.

After the sentencing, Gordon Manley Woods, a friend of Armstrong’s, said he still struggled to believe his friend was gone.

“Why?” Woods said.

“Why did you have to (kill) such an innocent person that would have given you anything you wanted in life?”