Inmate serving life sentence for Ontario murder dies in B.C. prison

An Ontario man serving a life sentence for the murder of his mother has died in custody in a British Columbia prison.

Damian Hawley died on April 29 at Mission Institution, a medium-security prison in B.C.'s Fraser Valley, according to a statement from the Correctional Service of Canada.

The CSC said Hawley had been serving an indeterminate sentence for second-degree murder since Nov. 16, 2016.

That's the date Hawley pleaded guilty and was sentenced to the mandatory life sentence that comes with murder convictions. The judge in the case sentenced him to no parole eligibility for 12 years. 

Hawley was charged with first-degree murder for the 2014 killing of his 85-year-old mother, who died in hospital in July of that year, 11 days after her son attacked her with a hammer. He ultimately pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of second-degree murder. 

The inmate was 54 at the time of the crime.

The court heard during sentencing that Hawley's son was asleep at home on June 26, 2014, when he heard his grandmother yell "stop," then saw her on the floor with "massive head trauma."

At the time of his sentencing, Hawley's daughter said she hoped her father would never be granted parole, adding she believed he was "a danger to society."

The CSC said Hawley's next of kin has been notified of his death. The service is now reviewing the circumstances surrounding his death, as it does whenever an inmate dies in custody.

With files from CTV News Windsor