‘My joy in life is completely gone’: Sentencing handed down in Jonathan Zak murder retrial

Jonathan Zak is seen in a family photo held by his mother at a press conference in London, Ont. on Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2013. (File)

The families of two London men who were gunned down are speaking out as a judge handed down his sentence years after the two separate killings took place.

Jonathan Zak was just 29 years old when he was walking home through a northeast London park after a night of board games with friends on May 31, 2012.

The court heard he later ran into William McDonald and Thomas Lako. Zak was robbed and shot in the chest.

Years later McDonald would be found guilty of second-degree murder and Lako guilty of manslaughter. After an appeals court reversed the decisions the two men were back in court pleading guilty to lesser charges. McDonald pled guilty to manslaughter and Lako to robbery with a firearm.

Jonathan’s mother Jean lost her only child 14 years ago, telling the court, “My joy in life is completely gone. Why would someone take a gun and shoot at somebody they did not know?”

In the other case that was overturned by an appeals court, McDonald on his own pled guilty to another charge of manslaughter after shooting his one-time friend Emmanuel Awai at a Connaught Avenue apartment in December 2016.

“It has forever cast a dark shadow in our lives...the family has never been the same,” the Awai family said during their victim impact statement.

In a joint sentencing submission from the Crown and the defence, Lako, who already spend the equivalent of 12 years behind bars, walked out of the London courthouse a free man.

Meanwhile McDonald told the court he was sorry and turned to the families saying, “I live with the sadness of knowing what my actions have caused.”

Justice Bruce Thomas then gave him two consecutive 10-year sentences for the killing. With credit for time served he has just under eight and a half years left.

“My punishment cannot begin to heal the emotional wounds the victims feel,” Thomas said as he addressed the victims’ families. “This I’m sure doesn’t provide any satisfactory closure but it’s the best I can do.”

Outside the courthouse Zak’s mother said, “It’s been a rough week because May 31 was the fourteenth anniversary and yesterday [June 3] he would have been forty-four.”

Jean said she thinks about him every day and the milestones he wasn’t able to achieve.

“Just seeing him and his smile and I miss the hugs and just talking to him. All the things that mother’s miss when their kids are gone,” she said.

When he addressed the media, Amedeo Awai said he feels helpless and fully understands no sentence can return his son to him.

“He’s gone and there’s nothing I can do to bring him back,” he said.

Prior to Thursday, McDonald had been sentenced two life sentences prior to the Court of Appeal overturning his previous convictions