Family members of murdered Barrie cab driver Gary Newman marched angrily out of a courtroom yesterday, yelling “We’ll be there in 11 years when you get out buddy!” at the man convicted in the brutal stabbing death.

Kelley Thackeray, 26, smiled and nodded when a judge sentenced him to life in prison with a chance of parole in 11 years for the second-degree murder of Newman, 49, in June 2001.

The judge said she took into account the fact Thackeray had no criminal record and that he is of Aboriginal heritage.

“This was a senseless, brutal, killing on a vulnerable stranger who had done nothing wrong,” said Justice Michelle Fuerst, noting Newman was stabbed 20 times in the face, neck, torso and hands.

Newman’s widow says she doesn’t buy the “lame excuse” that her husband’s killer committed the crime because he was depressed, broke and suffered childhood abuse related to his native heritage as a Cree Indian.

“You don’t go sticking a knife into somebody’s guts because of your heritage, or because you are broke,” said Terri Caron outside the Barrie courthouse on Wednesday.

The judge also noted the killer suffered abuse from his aboriginal mother until he was adopted as a toddler and that, around the time of the killing, Thackeray was depressed and financially strapped after he and his wife lost a down payment on a house when they couldn’t complete the transaction.

Thackeray told police he was desperate for money one night around midnight when he took a knife and a pair of work gloves to a darkened phone booth in the south end of Barrie and called a cab with a plan to rob its driver.

When they were on a county road, Thackeray asked Newman to pull over on the pretexts that he had forgot his bank card in the phone booth.

He then grabbed Newman from behind and stabbed repeatedly, while his victim tried in vain to block the knife blows with his hands.

Thackeray claimed he only meant to rob Newman, but became enraged when he learned there was no money, stabbing him on impulse, with one of the blows delivering a fatal jab through his face into his brain.

He then dragged Newman’s body to the side of the road, where he bled to death, then took off in the cab to a Tim Hortons, where he dumped the knife and a bloodied glove.

Police later found the other glove on the side of the road and took DNA samples, but couldn’t find a match. After an intensive investigation, they were stumped with no leads.

Two years later, Thackeray told a former neighbour about the killing after having several beers together in the neighbour’s garage. At first, the neighbour did not believe Thackeray, until his family inadvertently mentioned that police were hunting for Newman’s killer.

Standing alone in the parking lot, Newman’s widow, who is raising the couple’s three-year-old daughter, said she was bewildered by the fact Thackeray could have been sentenced to 25 years with no parole, but wasn’t.

“He says he was depressed and abused – well, I was abused as a child and throughout most of my life until I met Gary,” said Caron.

“When I’m broke, I do without and I eat less and I struggle and I get by. I don’t feel the need to go and kill somebody.”

After listening to the details of how brutally Newman died, Caron said she doesn’t believe the murder was on impulse.

“You don’t stab somebody that many times on impulse and you don’t bring gloves. He is an evil man and he will be back on the streets someday – evil always gets its way.”