Nicholas Brophy’s family testified Nov. 22 about the pain his murderers inflicted upon them when they beat the 18-year-old to death in Thompson in 2015.
Brophy’s brother, sister, aunt, grandmother and mother all presented statements Thursday, highlighting Nicholas’ qualities as outgoing young man who excelled in sports.
“He was like a social butterfly, everybody loved him,” Ashleigh Brophy, Nicholas’ sister, told the CBC outside the courtroom. “He was beautiful, as soon as he would smile he would light up a room — he was perfect in every way.”
A Winnipeg jury found Mark Bradley Thomas, 22, and Zach Edwin Linklater, 24, guilty Nov. 19 of first-degree murder for killing Brophy in September 2015.
Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Chris Martin delayed sentencing until Thursday and moved the hearing to Thompson so that community members had time to prepare victim impact statements.
Thomas and Linklater both received the mandatory sentence of life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.
“I’m very happy in the sense that this is all over and we’ve finally got justice for Nicholas,” Ashleigh told the CBC. “I’m also very sad that I’m going to have to live the rest of my life without my brother by my side and live every day knowing the pain and torture that he went through at the very end of his life.”
Brophy was last seen after leaving a friend’s house on foot Sept. 8, 2015. His body was discovered in a wooded area just outside of city limits in the spring of 2016.
A forensic anthropologist testified that Brophy suffered six skull fractures and multiple blunt force injuries, most likely caused by a metal baton that was found near his body.
At trial, Crown prosecutors said Brophy was jumped, kidnapped, taken to the woods and murdered as part of a gang initiation.
Ashleigh told the CBC that their family would never forgive Thomas and Linklater for what they did.
“We hope those monsters rot in jail for the rest of their lives and they never get out,” she said. “They have no remorse, they look like they don’t care about what they did whatsoever and they didn’t even have the decency to say sorry … so we want the worst for them.”
Ashleigh thanked the community of Thompson for their outstanding support during the initial search for her brother and the jury for reaching what the family sees as a just verdict.
“We are absolutely ecstatic and we couldn’t have gotten a better outcome. Thank you so much.”
In December 2017, a third man, Justin Noah Baker, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in Brophy’s death and was sentenced to life in prison with no eligibility for parole for 10 years.
