Kyle Pietz sentenced to 16 years in robbery and death of Eduardo Balaquit

WINNIPEG -

The man found guilty of manslaughter in the June 2018 robbery and death of 59-year-old Eduardo Balaquit of Winnipeg has been sentenced to 16 years in prison.

Court of King’s Bench Justice Sadie Bond sentenced Kyle Pietz, 37, on Monday in a crowded courtroom filled with friends and family of Balaquit.

Pietz was found guilty by a jury of manslaughter this past May.

Balaquit’s body has not been found.

In sentencing Pietz, Bond accepted as fact Pietz planned to rob Mr. Balaquit of his bank cards and personal identification numbers (PINs) and then disposed of his body north of Winnipeg, somewhere in the Arborg area.

“Whatever Mr. Pietz did to Mr. Balaquit during the robbery caused his death,” Bond told the court.

She accepted an argument made by the Crown that Pietz would’ve understood in advance there was a risk of causing bodily harm to Balaquit during the robbery.

“They argued it was objectively foreseeable that using violence to steal Mr. Balaquit’s bank cards and to extract from him his personal identification numbers would put him at risk of serious bodily harm,” Bond told the court. “I find that just as a reasonable person would know that using violence to steal a person’s bank cards and extract from that person their PINs would put them at risk for serious bodily injury. Mr. Pietz knew that, too.”

Bond noted she approached this issue with caution as there was no evidence heard at trial on the exact nature of the violence that caused Balaquit’s death.

Balaquit, who worked alone as a cleaner at Westcon Equipment and Rentals, disarmed the alarm just after 6 p.m. on June 4, 2018.

He was never seen or heard from again.

The Crown argued at trial Pietz, driven by financial desperation, killed Balaquit while robbing him of his bank cards and PINs at Westcon and then discarded his body in the area of Arborg, Man. north of Winnipeg.

“In my view, there is ample evidence to support the inference Mr. Pietz planned the robbery of Mr. Balaquit,” Bond told the court.

Pietz received credit for time served, leaving 14 years and 278 days remaining on his sentence.