Man sentenced to 14 years for deadly abduction in North Vancouver

Horrific details revealed as kidnapper sentenced Troubling details of a fatal abduction were revealed as one of the men behind it received a prison sentence of 14 years.

One of the men responsible for a 2015 abduction that killed a 22-year-old Chinese student in North Vancouver has been sentenced to more than a decade in prison.

Tian Yi Eddie Zhang was handed 14 years for manslaughter Tuesday as part of a plea deal for the disturbing crime, which rattled the North Shore community when it was discovered a year-and-a-half ago.

He was also given concurrent sentences of seven years for unlawful confinement and seven years for extortion.

Crown prosecutor Jeremy Hermanson said the sentence was appropriate given Zhang's role in what happened.

"[It's] a significant sentence without being a crushing sentence," Hermanson said. "It was not Mr. Zhang who physically caused the death."

With credit for time served, the sentence amounts to 11 years and 329 days.

The court heard the victim, Peng Sun, was lured to a vacant home owned by Zhang's uncle on Sept. 27, 2015 under the pretence of attending a party.

A group of men were waiting for him, and Sun was led into the property's basement, which had been readied with plastic coverings, and tied up.

Over the next several hours, Zhang made multiple ransom calls to Sun's parents in China, demanding the equivalent of about $2.5 million.

In some of the calls, Sun spoke with his father, at one point telling him "Dad, someone has a gun to my head, they want money," according to court documents. In another, Zhang threatened to cut off Sun's fingers if the family didn't comply.

Sun's parents ultimately transferred about $340,000 into a bank account of his captors' choosing.

The court heard Zhang came downstairs late that night and saw Sun face-down on the ground being Tasered by his accomplices. The men later determined Sun was dead, which an autopsy blamed on strangulation from a zap strap that had been tied around his neck.

"When he was killed Mr. Sun's hands and feet were bound and his head and face nearly entirely covered in duct tape," according to an agreed statement of facts in Zhang's trial.

The documents state Zhang didn't anticipate Sun's killing, nor did he take part, but he still shoulders some of the blame for what happened.

"He did deliver Mr. Sun up to his eventual killer(s) and was present in the house at the time of the murder," they read.

He also made further ransom calls to Sun's parents after the victim was already dead.

Two days after the abduction, Zhang and three other men were arrested trying to get rid of Sun's body, which was wrapped in a tarp and left in the trunk of a Bentley parked on a quiet residential street.

Another of the accused, Casey James Hiscoe, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to unlawfully confine and accessory after the fact to murder earlier this month. He has yet to be sentenced.

With files from CTV Vancouver's David Molko