A man convicted in the double-killings of a high school friend’s mother and grandmother in a murder-for-hire plot has been denied full parole.
The decision was handed down following an often tense parole board hearing for Derik Lord on Friday, where he became increasingly frustrated with the questions board members were asking him.
“I’m getting an indignant vibe in your communication right now. Is that how you’re feeling?’ asked parole board member Patrick Storey.
Lord responded that he was “very intimidated by this process” but was “not trying to be condescending.”
But the tense exchanges continued – at one point, the proceedings paused so Lord could calm down. He later said he was stressed out by the hearing.
“He could not handle it, at all. He had to leave the room and when he came back, he was still very stressed and difficult to deal with,” said Kim Hill, a relative of the victims. She said Lord “showed his true colors” at the hearing and that his day parole should be revoked.
In turning down his request for full parole, the board said to Lord that he had come across as “indignant, defensive, angry, belligerent.”
“Given your performance today, there’s still more work to be done,” a parole board member told Lord who has been on day parole for several years.
Lord was a teenager when he was convicted, along with two friends, in the brutal murders of Sharon Huenemann and Doris Leatherbarrow in their Tsawwassen home in 1990.
The murder trial had heard that Darren Huenemann, Sharon Huenemann’s son and Doris Leatherbarrow’s grandson, asked his friends Lord and David Muir to kill both women for money.
Lord has always maintained his innocence.
“He’s denied for over 30 years, so that shows there is no remorse,” said Ed Beketa, a relative of the victims.
Added Hill, “Without him admitting his guilt, how is he possibly getting the rehabilitation he needs?”
Prior to the board making its decision, Hill read a statement, asking, “Why does he get to go free, when he has not admitted his guilt and recognized our pain?”
She said she was pleased full parole was denied.
Beketa said he still wonders how the killings could have happened and said that for family members, the parole board hearings are “like opening a sore and it never heals.”
“They slaughtered two beautiful, defenseless ladies,” he told CTV News, adding that he expects Lord will keep trying to get full parole.
The hearing heard that Lord works at a mill and has maintained good relationships and community supports.
