Surrey shooter pleads guilty, gets 8 years for manslaughter [Video]

A drug dealer who shot his customer in the chest over an unpaid debt in 2022 has been sentenced to eight years in prison for manslaughter.

Darren Ellis Scott was charged with second-degree murder after killing Christopher Hartl in Hartl’s Surrey home on April 1, 2022, but he pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter with a firearm earlier this year.

In a sentencing decision issued last week, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Barbara J. Norell accepted a joint submission from Crown and defence counsels recommending a sentence of eight years in prison, minus credit for time served. 

After spending 747 days in custody before sentencing, which is credited at 1.5 days per day, Scott has four years and 340 days left to serve from the date he was sentenced.

Drug debt led to shooting

Police were called to Hartl’s home on 97 Avenue near 126 Street around 2:30 p.m. on the date of the shooting. When they arrived, they found …