Carlos Nathaniel Monteith, 29, received a mandatory life sentence Monday, May 12 with no eligibility to apply for parole until he's served 25 years in prison, after a jury found him guilty of first-degree murder in the 2019 contract shooting of Kristijan Coric at a gas station in Surrey.

Monteith addressed the court before his sentence was passed.

"I didn't have a fair trial," he said. "What you guys are doing is wrong."

The sentencing took place in B.C. Supreme Court in New Westminster. Justice Frits Verhoeven presided over Monteith's trial in New Westminster, after which the jury returned its guilty verdict on March 14.

Coric, 29, of Surrey was shot dead on Sept. 28, 2019 at the Mobil Gas Station at 18699 Fraser Highway. The trial with judge and jury began on Feb. 3 and evidence related to the Crown's application was heard on Jan. 24.

Coric's girlfriend was the driver and Coric was in the front passenger seat. They'd been tracked to the station with a GPS tracking device that was attached to the Mercedes' rear undercarriage.

Prosecutor Rod Flannigan said Coric was shot three times in the head at close range, and was also shot in his chest, arms and lower body. Seventeen bullet shells were found at the scene. He told the court it's not known who hired Monteith in the "contracted hit."

The defence argued that the hiring aspect of the murder wasn't proven beyond a reasonable doubt, that Monteith has suffered from mental health issues, that he has 12 siblings and had a tough upbringing. Verhoeven agreed with the Crown that it was indeed a contract killing, concluding Coric's murder was "a paid killing or assassination of Mr. Coric on behalf of unidentified others."

Flannigan told Verhoeven he's not aware of any mitigating factors but the aggravating are "many."

The court heard Monteith already had 22 youth convictions and 20 adult criminal convictions.

"That makes 42 in all," Flannigan noted. "This will be his 43rd."

Flannigan read aloud a victim impact statement on behalf of the victim's brother, Daniel Coric. Family members weren't in the courtroom and brother explained in his statement why.

"None of us are here in person today because we simply cannot share a courtroom with the man who murdered someone we love so deeply. The emotional weight is too heavy."

Daniel shared the "pain and devastation" Monteith has inflicted on his family, speaking for the entire family. He told the court his brother had been on his way to his niece's third birthday party when he was killed. "He never made it. Instead Carlos Monteith ambushed him in cold blood."

"Your actions were those of a weak man, cowardly and pathetic," he told Monteith. "You ambushed someone who wasn't expecting it and stole his life without a second thought. The pain you've caused is boundless."

"Our mother cries daily, our father has lost his spirit. You took their child from them. Kristijan's son was just nine years old 鈥� you took away his father," Daniel wrote. "You stole everything from that boy."

"We live this loss, over and over, every single day," he told the killer. "Our sentence is permanent. You don't deserve to walk free again. You deserve to sit in a prison and rot with the weight of what you've done, haunted by the life you ended."

Leading up to the trial, Verhoeven was schooled on the finer points of jailhouse slang during a voir dire hearing, which essentially is a mini trial within a trial where the Crown and defence make arguments over what evidence a judge should allow into the trial proper, be it before a judge and jury or considered only by the judge, himself or herself. During this one, Verhoeven heard an application from the Crown seeking to include in the trial expert opinion evidence concerning coded, slang and covert language "with respect to illegal activities."

The Crown relied on the contents of phone calls Monteith made while in custody at North Fraser Pretrial Centre, after November 25, 2019, that were related to another matter and included some rap song lyrics.

The Crown contented the jail calls included "a number of admissions, and also that the jail calls support other aspects of the Crown鈥檚 case," Verhoeven noted.

"During these calls, the accused referred to shooting people in the head, killing someone, and that he had a body," the judge stated in his . "He also said that he has done things for money, and he could get 25 to life. He used slang terms for violence such as having a body, wiping a nose, spanking a man on camera, and having a hammer (firearm). The accused also rapped about being an assassin, killing someone, with hollow points, head shots, and having a black mask."

The defence opposed admission of the jail calls into the trial, arguing they are "difficult to decipher, or indecipherable, contain significant amounts of slang, and in general, are very difficult to understand."

Monteith is from Toronto. The court heard from a detective constable from the Toronto police service whom the judge was satisfied is an expert in "coded, slang and covert language in the context of illegal activities."

During the voir dire 15 jail calls were considered, with five of them containing rap lyrics, with the detective tasked with interpreting them. 

Verhoeven heard that a 鈥渉ammer" refers to a firearm; 鈥渂ands" refers to money or thousand-dollar increments of money ( 鈥淩acks" or 鈥渂and" both refer to $1,000 increments of money), a 鈥減lug" is a supplier or person who has access to something; 鈥渟nake" means untrustworthy; 鈥減aper" refers to money; 鈥渃atch a body" refers to someone being killed;  鈥渨ipe a nose鈥� refers to an act of violence, like a shooting, robbery, or a homicide; 鈥渂ag" refers to money; 鈥渉ollow shells鈥� and 鈥渘ine" refer to ammo and guns.

Also, the judge heard, 鈥渘ine bitch" can refer to a firearm; 鈥淚 have a body" refers to having killed someone; 鈥渢ouch roads" refers to being released from jail; 鈥渂ird" refers to drugs; 鈥淐asper" refers to ghost; 鈥渟pank" or 鈥渟panking" refers to shooting someone or something; 鈥渉emmed up" refers to being arrested; 鈥渉itter" refers to a shooter, or as a variation of the term 鈥渉it man"; and 鈥渟tick" refers to a firearm.

The words and phrases, Verhoeven said, "comprise specialized language of a nature largely peculiar to the Toronto criminal street and drug crime scenes.  This evidence is very likely to be outside of the understanding and knowledge of most and probably all members of the jury, hearing this case in New Westminster, British Columbia."