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Taig Savage’s family is facing another difficult development in the case of a 22-year-old Penticton man killed five years ago.
“It’s shocking. Absolutely shocking,” Taig’s mother, Tracey Savage, said Monday after learning that the two co-defendants had reached plea deals in the case.
This development comes just a week and a half after another defendant pleaded guilty to murder in a plea deal.
Savage’s body was found on the track field at Penticton Secondary School in September 2021.
Four people were charged with second-degree murder two years later.
Three of the suspects were minors at the time of the murder.
On September 4, one of the defendants pleaded guilty to murder as part of a plea agreement.
Now, two other minors have also reached similar plea deals.
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Tracey Savage said the family felt there had been no justice for Taig.
“I had just held my granddaughter in my arms, and I realized that my son would never meet her,” she said, fighting back tears. “This is not something we want, but as I learned today, nothing, or most things in life, are unfair and this will never be.”
Under the Juvenile Criminal Justice Act, the maximum sentence for involuntary manslaughter is three years in prison, compared to seven years in prison for second-degree murder.
“When it comes to second-degree murder versus manslaughter, the biggest hurdle for the Crown to prove secondary murder is that they have to prove that the defendant intended to cause the victim’s death,” said Rob Dhanu, a former criminal prosecutor.
Dhanu added that murder cases are very complicated, especially if many people are accused of committing the crime.
“What the Crown has to do, they have to prove not just who did what, but also who intended to do what, Dhanu said. “The Crown probably felt that in this case it was better to act empty-handed than both of them in the jungle and file a lesser charge if they got a conviction.”
A publication ban prevents reporting on the circumstances that unfolded in court because Isaac Jack, the only adult defendant in the case, has not yet been tried.
Jack’s trial is scheduled for this spring, but Tracey Savage wonders if it will go forward after three plea deals.
“I hope we don’t sit here another year in May 2027 when this court case rolls around with the same expression and face I have right now,” he said. “It’s a very sad day.”
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
