A charter application hearing for Luciano Mariani is ongoing at B.C. Supreme Court in Nanaimo. (file photo/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By Ian Holmes

charter application

Parole application launched for man who murdered former girlfriend north of Qualicum Beach

Jun 11, 2024 | 5:30 AM

NANAIMO — A judge is tasked with deciding if a man who pleaded guilty to first degree murder has a glimmer of hope at early parole privileges.

A lawyer for Luciano Emillio Mariani, 46, introduced a charter application on Monday, June 10 in response to his deliberately planned murder of 41-year-old Caroline Jennifer Bernard at her Bowser home in late August, 2021.

While stating his client accepts responsibility for his actions, attorney John Conroy is challenging what he called a “one size fits all” stipulation of no parole eligibility for at least 25 years.

“It is inherently grossly disproportionate as undermining human dignity due to the lack of individualization,” Conroy told B.C. Supreme Court Justice David Crossin in Nanaimo.

The charter application is opposed by the Crown, while the hearing is expected to last about one week.

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The Criminal Code of Canada stipulates an offender sentenced to life in prison may apply for a reduction in parole eligibility after serving at least 15 years.

Hypothetically, if a jury agreed with easing Mariani’s parole eligibility requirements, an application could formally be made the Parole Board of Canada.

Early last July Mariani pleaded guilty to first degree murder, cancelling a pending trial.

An agreed statement of facts heard his actions were fueled by revenge against a former partner who had an abortion with his child after their relationship fell apart.

The pair started dating in Oct. 2020, then Mariani moved into the home Bernard shared with her mother and young daughter in Bowser in March 2021.

Bernard ended the relationship two months later after Mariani abused her daughter.

He then moved back home to Alberta.

Mariani travelled back to Vancouver Island about a week prior to the murder, collecting items along the way to help carry out his offence, including buying a baseball bat.

On Aug. 31, 2021 at 4:10 a.m. after circling the victim’s Thompson Clark West Dr. home nine times, Mariani smashed his way into Bernard’s bedroom through a ground-floor sliding glass window.

He hit Bernard multiple times in the head and face with the weapon, resulting in substantial blood loss.

Bernard’s then four-year-old daughter, who was sleeping with her mother at the time, was uninjured and covered in blood.

Bernard’s mother, hearing her granddaughter crying, came downstairs to make the gruesome discovery.

She was later pronounced dead while en-route to hospital.

Mariani’s SUV, registered to his father, was found at Rosewell Provincial Park.

He was arrested alongside Hwy. 19 in Fanny Bay after telling a construction worker that he thought he killed his former girlfriend.

Mariani made a suicide attempt by cutting his arms prior to being taken into custody.

For nearly two months prior to the murder, Mariani made numerous online searches supporting his plan to murder Bernard, including ‘What to do if you believe an eye-for-an-eye and your child is killed?’ and ‘Time needed to kill someone with a baseball bat.’

Those searches were extracted by police investigators from the device left in the SUV.

Mariani’s sentencing hearing has been delayed, in part by the ongoing charter application and a yet-to-be-completed psychiatric assessment.

He’s been locked up since he was arrested and did not seek bail.

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Ian.holmes@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @reporterholmes