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Young was 33 when he went into hiding. He is now 52.

In the prisoner’s box, Young apologized and said he is no longer the same man he was in 1995.

“My first lawyer told me that If I were you, I’d put as much time between these charges as you can and I did that to the best of my ability,” Young told court. “I knew someday I’d have to give my pound of flesh.”

Royal, who was not Young’s lawyer in 1995, said his client wants to live a normal life and run a landscaping business.

On Friday, Young pleaded guilty to assault causing bodily harm, extortion and killing an animal. He was sentenced to three years in prison. He has already been fined $2,500 for the marijuana operation officers found in 2012.

We’re just happy that after 17 years, he’s finally behind bars

“We had been looking for him for years,” said RCMP Cpl. Colette Zazulak after the 2012 bust. “We’re just happy that after 17 years, he’s finally behind bars.”

According to agreed facts, Young believed that Shane Letwin had stolen two pounds of marijuana from Young’s drug operation in August 1995. Young was a “mid-level marijuana dealer” and the leader of his accomplices, Royal said.

Young, known on the street as Benny, and his gang abducted Letwin from his Edmonton home and forced him to eat a butter tart laced with LSD as a type of truth serum.

The group took Letwin, then 29, to a Spruce Grove acreage where his bull terrier was boarded. They beat Letwin and Young shot his dog five times with a handgun before he tossed the body into some trees.

“They all just said ‘shoot the dog,’ so Ben did,” Letwin said at the 1998 trial of Young’s co-accused. “He shot him once in the head. He ran around the doghouse and came out and charged the group. At that point Ben shot him four more times.”