A B.C. Supreme Court judge has sentenced a hitman convicted of first-degree murder to life in prison without parole possibility for 25 years.
“This was a cold-blooded, calculated murder of an individual, in a busy public place, a gas station, when there were many people nearby or in the immediate vicinity,” Justice Frits Verhoeven said in his sentencing ruling.
Verhoeven said in a newly released May decision that Carlos Nathaniel Monteith was convicted by a jury March 14 in the death of Kristijan Coric Sept. 28, 2019 at a Surrey Mobil gas station.
Seventeen shots were fired from a handgun, 16 of which were fired into the vehicle Coric was sitting in.
The judge said Monteith shot Coric at close range with a firearm multiple times, and that the murder was planned and deliberate as is required for a finding of first-degree murder.
“The Crown submits, and I agree, that this was a paid contracted murder. Mr. Monteith was paid to kill Mr. Coric by persons unknown,” Verhoeven said.

Brother Daniel Coric told the court Kristijan Coric was on his way to a family celebration to celebrate Daniel's daughter's third birthday. He said his brother has a nine-year-old son.
“His son will grow up without the love and support of his father,” Verhoeven said.
Monteith maintained his innocence, telling the court his trial was unfair.
The judge said Monteith’s record includes multiple convictions for assault, breaking and entering, theft, possession of proceeds of crime, uttering threats, possession of a weapon, two drug possession offences, possession of a prohibited or restricted firearm with ammunition, possession of drugs for purposes of trafficking, possession of a firearm or ammunition contrary to a prohibition order, carrying a concealed weapon, assault of a peace officer and discharging a firearm with intent to wound or disfigure.
“His criminal record sets out approximately 22 youth convictions, and 16 adult convictions, plus this one, so in total 17 adult convictions,” the ruling said.
The judge said Monteith received tens of thousands of dollars at the time of the murder.
“His digital communications and bank records show that he was short of money just prior to the murder,” Verhoeven wrote.
However, in jail calls that the Crown relied upon as part of its case, Monteith said he received a substantial amount of money just a couple of days after finishing parole, which coincided with the day of the murder, for doing only 10 seconds worth of work, Vervoehen said.

“The day after the murder he was able to purchase expensive items including expensive shoes at a high‑end store in downtown Vancouver, Holt Renfrew, which items he then flaunted on social media, and flaunted and bragged about to other persons, one of whom was a witness at trial,” the judge said.
The judge said Monteith had bragged about committing a hit for money, that he had stolen the hit from another person and that he made comments about the driver who accompanied him on the hit.
“I conclude that the killing was planned and deliberate, as the jury found, but more than that, that the killing was conducted pursuant to a specific plan, and that plan was a paid killing, a hit, or in other words an assassination of Mr. Coric, carried out on behalf of unidentified others, in exchange for money,” Verhoeven said.
