B.C. man who murdered wife and son will be eligible for parole in 10 years

File photo of Tsay Keh Dene First Nation courtesy of Wikipedia

Warning: This story contains details readers may find disturbing

A man who murdered his wife and son in the family home on a remote First Nations reserve in B.C. will be eligible for parole in 10 years, according to a recently published court decision.

Orlan Marcel Dennis admitted he fatally shot his wife, Darlene, and teenage son, Dorian, and pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder—a plea he unsuccessfully sought to withdraw last year.

“Mr. Dennis’s wife and son should have been safe in their home and protected by Mr. Dennis as a husband and father. Instead, he put them to a violent death,” Justice Simon R. Coval said in his sentencing decision.

“The devastation from his actions goes far beyond that. He deprived his children of a mother and a brother. He deprived Dorian’s partner of a husband and their son of a father. The surviving members of his family continue to suffer terribly from these horrific acts.”

The crimes carry an automatic life sentence.

A 10-year parole eligibility period is the minimum that can be imposed and the sentencing judge described it as “below the normal range for cases with such extreme circumstances as this.”

Stand-off with police after fatal shootings

The court heard an agreed upon statement of facts, describing what unfolded on April 9, 2024, on the Tsay Keh Dene Nation, a remote community hundreds of kilometres north of Prince George with a population of fewer than 250.

Orlan had been drinking with friends at his mother’s house, which was across the street from the home he lived in with his wife and two sons, but left after arguing with his brother, according to the sentencing decision.

Once home, he started an argument with Darlene, accusing her of cheating on him before retrieving a rifle from a gun safe.

“Orlan then returned to the living room where Darlene was. He shot her in the face, just below her left eye,” the court heard.

Dorian was in his room and ran up the stairs after he heard the gunshot.

“Orlan shot the person coming up the stairs in the chest,” according to the decision.

The couple’s other teenage son was home at the time. He escaped through a window and ran across the street to his grandmother’s to call police. When officers arrived, Orlan was on the front steps of his mother’s house holding the rifle.

“(An officer) told Orlan he was under arrest for murder and to drop the gun. Orlan refused. He was waving the rifle frantically, trying to get inside (the) residence. He was swearing and clearly intoxicated, slurring his words and staggering,” the decision said.

Orlan was able to get inside the home, prompting an hours-long standoff that ended after members of the emergency response team deployed tear gas into the house—and ultimately shot Orlan when he emerged holding the rifle, which had a round in the chamber.

B.C.’s Independent Investigations Office was called to investigate the police use of force, and found the shooting was reasonable, necessary and justified.

Avoiding the ordeal of a trial

The judge noted the 10-year parole eligibility period was a joint submission from Crown and the defence and concluded there were not grounds to depart from it.

“An important consideration supporting the joint submission is Mr. Dennis’s guilty plea, which spared the family the trial and his son Marshall having to testify about being present when the events occurred,” Goval wrote.

“I also accept that further support comes from the deep connection between Mr. Dennis’s crimes and the Indigenous sentencing factors present in his upbringing.”

Orlan’s parents were residential school survivors, and he grew up impoverished in an “environment of violence and drug and alcohol abuse,” the judge wrote. He was removed from his home when he was seven and put into foster care. One of his brothers was killed, and multiple family members died after drug overdoses, according to the decision.

Orlan, who was 46 when he was sentenced, had been with Darlene since the pair were teens, but the judge noted the relationship was “impacted by (Orlan’s) alcohol addiction and his admitted intimate‑partner violence.”

His criminal record included two convictions for violence against Darlene, one for assault in 2007 and one for aggravated assault in 2009. He was also convicted of assaulting one of his daughters in 2016.

While the judge acknowledged the way in which Orlan’s upbringing was shaped by the systemic harms that shape the lives of many Indigenous offenders, including intergenerational trauma, violence, and addiction, he also noted that the victims were themselves Indigenous.

“He inflicted the worst form of violence on an Indigenous woman and young man and tore apart an Indigenous family,” Goval wrote.

Orval has been banished from the reserve as a result of his crimes, the decision said.