BECKETT AND LETTS

A week after a 12-person B.C. Supreme Court jury was unable to come to a unanimous verdict as to whether Peter Beckett killed his Canadian wife in 2010, the former New Zealand politician is maintaining his innocence, calling the local justice system a “kangaroo court.”

“I’ve been disgusted with the whole Kamloops kangaroo court from the get-go,” the 59-year-old told KTW in a jailhouse interview after his jury returned hung.

“You can’t convict a guy of first-degree murder based on the Crown’s theory that he lied. Kangaroo court doesn’t even begin to describe what goes on in Kamloops.”

Beckett’s wife, Laura Letts-Beckett, drowned in Upper Arrow Lake near Revelstoke on Aug. 18, 2010.

The death was initially believed to have been an accident, but Beckett was charged with murder a year later.

At his trial, which spanned three months before wrapping up last week with no decision, the Crown alleged Beckett killed his wife out of greed, hoping to cash in on life-insurance and accidental-death benefits.

Beckett, meanwhile, maintained Letts-Beckett’s death was either an accident or a suicide. Letts-Beckett had previously had suicidal thoughts, as jurors saw in a 2007 diary entry.

Letts-Beckett drowned after going into the water while on an evening boat ride with her husband. She was not wearing a life jacket and was not a strong swimmer.

A week after they were sent out to deliberate, Beckett’s jury returned hung on April 12. In a note passed to the judge, the jury foreperson said the impasse was the result of “one dissenting voice.”

Beckett told KTW he believes the jury was voting 11-1 in favour of his acquittal.

“I know that for a fact,” he said.

“There is no way that there was any legal parameter to convict me.

“There was plenty of evidence to support accident, medical reasoning, vertigo, blackout, fainting, temperature sensitivity. There was plenty of evidence to suggest it could have been suicide.

“So, before a jury could even come to the conclusion it was homicide, they had to first discard the idea that it was medical, accidental or suicide.”

Jury deliberations are secret.

There is no way to know which way the majority of Beckett’s jurors were leaning when they came back hung.

Beckett told KTW he thinks justice officials are out to get him, all at the urging of his deceased wife’s family.

“There’s nothing wrong with the law,” he said, speculating that a juror was planted in order to prevent an acquittal.

“I’m not blaming the law for this kangaroo court. It’s only the actors, and that’s what they are — actors.”

Beckett, who is still wearing his wedding ring nearly six years after his wife’s death, said he looks forward to a new trial.

“I want to go back to trial,” he said. “I want to save my wife’s legacy — and mine.”

Beckett has spent more than four years in jail since his 2011 arrest. He said the time behind bars is just part of clearing his name.

“It’s not as hard as what my father, my grandfathers, endured in the war,” he said.

“And, looking over myself, this has to be done, not just for the benefit of my wife, but for shaking the crap out of the judicial system in B.C.”

Beckett and Letts-Beckett met in 1995 in New Zealand. Five years later, he moved to Westlock, Alta., to be closer to her. The couple married in 2003.

A number of Crown witnesses have described their relationship as a rocky one, but a defence witness called the couple “lovebirds.”

The Becketts separated in late 2007, but reconciled six weeks later.

Letts-Beckett also went to police in 2007 alleging physical abuse on the part of her husband, but no charges were laid.

Beckett was formerly a city councillor in Napier, New Zealand.

Andrew McKay

The sentencing of Andrew McKay,  former director of graduate studies at Thompson Rivers University, has again been delayed.

McKay is charged with one count of possession of child pornography.

He was to be sentenced in Vernon provincial court on April 12, but Judge Mayland McKimm agreed to an adjournment.

Both Crown prosecutor Evan Goulet and defence lawyer Shawn Buckley were to join the proceedings in Vernon via telephone, but Buckley was unavailable as he was tied up with a jury trial in Alberta.

His representative, Geneviève Eliany, said there could be a contested sentencing or a withdrawal of McKay’s guilty plea based on a development regarding evidence.

Goulet explained that when he was describing the child porn material in question during a sentencing hearing in Salmon Arm in January, Buckley interrupted and said he hadn’t seen or heard about some of the material.

However, Goulet said he had emailed Buckley prior to McKay entering a guilty plea, laying out exactly what material he would be presenting.

The January sentencing was then adjourned so the lawyers could sort out the evidence.

Goulet told McKimm last week he hasn’t been able to speak to Buckley, but he expects the sentencing hearing would be short, with one or two witnesses and possibly one more piece of material.

McKimm directed the court to meet with the judicial case manager to set aside a half-day in Kamloops for the sentencing hearing.

About two weeks to a month before it takes place, McKimm wants  Crown and defence counsel to hold a pre-trial conference via telephone to confirm both sides are ready to proceed.

He said he wants the hearing to be scheduled for the end of May or early June at the latest, noting he is not prepared to wait indefinitely for Buckley’s return.

“Mr. McKay is entitled to have the sentencing sooner than later,” McKimm said.

In August 2015, McKay changed his plea from not guilty to guilty. On May 12, 2014, in Kamloops, McKay was found in the possession of  child pornography in the form of images.

Calling him an “under-prosecuted” and “versatile” criminal, the Crown is seeking an indefinite prison sentence for a convicted killer from the Lillooet area who appears to enjoy life behind bars.

Michael Tom was convicted in 2014 of unlawful confinement stemming from a violent altercation with his then-girlfriend in the Lillooet area.

The Crown applied to have the 38-year-old declared a dangerous offender, which would mean he could be jailed for life.

Tom’s dangerous-offender hearing began on Tuesday in B.C. Supreme Court in Kamloops.

Crown prosecutor Adrienne Murphy said Tom, who has lived in Lillooet, Kamloops and the Lower Mainland, is unique in that he seems to like being incarcerated.

“Mr. Tom may well prefer to be in jail,” she said.

“He has made comments to that. He said he found in jail he had more of a family than he did outside.

“There is a structure there.”

Murphy said Tom was “born into tragedy” and grew up in the Lillooet area.

“The issue we’re looking at here is whether there is a reasonable prospect for his future,” she said.

“The reasonable expectation is that he will commit a future serious violent offence.”

Murphy said Tom’s criminal record is not reflective of his actual behaviour in the community.

She filed a book of 28 police reports — some prosecuted, some unprosecuted and some partially prosecuted — to boost her claim.

“There are shortcomings in Lillooet for the justice system and social services,” Murphy said.

“It’s possible, over the years, that Mr. Tom has been under-prosecuted.”

Murphy said Tom’s offending doesn’t follow a particular pattern.

“Mr. Tom, he’s called a versatile offender,” she said. “He offends against a great number of people.

“He’ll spit on children on the riverbank.

“He’ll be out with friends and tell Buddy A to put his hands behind his back and tell Buddy B to beat up Buddy A.

“He’s the type of individual who will see a man entering a store to buy a Slurpee and threaten the man in front of his children.

“It’s the manner in which he erupts.”

Defence lawyer Ken Sommerfeld said Tom, who received a four-year sentence for manslaughter after shooting and killing his uncle when he was 20, deserves another chance on the outside.

“For sure, Mr. Tom is pretty bad and there’s a lot of his life that explains that,” Sommerfeld said, pointing to a difficult childhood and other First Nations issues as a result of residential schools.

“A guy like Mr. Tom, we owe him some serious consideration here. It’s my submission that the in-between solution here is for a person like him.

“In the First Nations and offending scene, particularly with this drunken violence problem, it’s a matter of judicial awareness that people like Mr. Tom tend to burn out in their 40s and 50s.

“It stops because they get to an age where they just don’t do it anymore.”

Sommerfeld is seeking a determinate sentence followed by a 10-year supervision order in the community.

Tom’s dangerous-offender hearing, in front of B.C. Supreme Court Justice Sheri Donegan, is expected to finish tomorrow.

A Calgary man accused of committing sex crimes against a Kamloops teenager last summer has been released on bail, but ordered to stay out of B.C.

Cory Richard Swain is accused of touching a person under 16 for a sexual purpose and sexual assault.

Both charges relate to a single victim and the crimes are alleged to have taken place on Canada Day 2015 in Kamloops.

Swain was granted bail in Kamloops provincial court on Wednesday, but ordered to put up a $2,000 deposit and stay out of B.C. except for court appearances.

He is due back in court on May 26.

An Abbotsford woman has been ordered to pay more than $65,000 after making unfounded accusations over Facebook suggesting her neighbour was a pedophile who set up mirrors and cameras in his backyard to spy on her children.

A B.C. Supreme Court judge has ruled that Katherine Van Nes’s “viral” online posts were “completely false and unjustified” and had a devastating effect on Douglas Pritchard and his career as a middle-school music teacher.

In his ruling, Justice Anthony Saunders describes how the Abbotsford neighbours’ relationship began to deteriorate after Pritchard approached Van Nes in 2011 about turning off a newly built backyard pond and waterfall at night, which he said interrupted his wife’s sleep.

Pritchard and his wife were eventually advised by the municipality to document their complaints after a series of worsening unneighbourly conduct by Van Nes and her family.

The court document says those efforts, along with the installation of a decorative mirror, prompted Van Nes to take to Facebook, which she described as a form of “venting.”

Van Nes removed her defamatory comments after about 27 hours, but the ruling says by then the damage had been done, including one member of the community contacting the principal of the school where Pritchard worked about the allegations.

“The seriousness of Ms. Van Nes’s defamatory Facebook post, her replies, and the comments of her ‘friends’ cannot be overstated,” Saunders writes.

“An accusation of pedophilic behaviour must be the single most effective means of destroying a teacher’s reputation and career, not to mention the devastating effect on their life and individual dignity.

“He now faces the challenge of repairing the damage Ms. Van Nes has caused, if that is even possible at this point.”

The judgment awards Pritchard $50,000 in general damages, $15,000 in punitive damages and $2,500 for his nuisance claim.

It also orders the Van Nes household to turn off the waterfall in the backyard pond nightly between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m.

— The Canadian Press

A man accused of pulling a knife on the manager of a Kamloops clothing store and threatening to “slice” her will spend the foreseeable future in a jail cell despite fears he may fall prey to other prisoners.

Robert Rennie is facing one count each of uttering threats and possessing a weapon for a dangerous purpose.

The 28-year-old was arrested and charged following an alleged incident at the Winners Homesense store on Columbia Street on Wednesday.

He appeared in court Friday for a bail hearing.

Crown article student Danika Heighes said Rennie visited Winners just before 1 p.m., dropping off his backpack with the manager has he walked into the store.

The manager, court heard, recognized Rennie and asked her staff to keep an eye on him. Heighes said the manager suspected Rennie had previously taken items into a change room to remove security tags.

When Rennie approached the change rooms on Wednesday, Heighes said, the manager asked him to leave.

“He pulled a knife out of his pocket and switched it open,” Heighes said. “He told her to stay back or he was going to slice her.”

Court heard Rennie then fled the store. He was arrested a short time later on foot near Superstore.

Defence lawyer Murray Armstrong said Rennie, who has a lengthy criminal history with six convictions for violent crimes, has enemies at Kamloops Regional Correctional Centre after it became known he offered information to police a year ago.

Kamloops provincial court Judge Roy Dickey denied Rennie’s bail application.

He will return to court on May 2.

UPDATE: Kamloops RCMP Cpl. Jodie Shelkie said the Kamloops Law Courts may reopen Monday after lunch. She said local Mounties are in contact with the bomb squad from Vancouver to determine if they are needed to finish sweeping the building following the bomb-threat call at 8:50 a.m.

The Kamloops Law Courts building has been evacuated due to a bomb threat on Monday morning.

Kamloops RCMP Cpl. Jodie Shelkie said police received reports of the threat at 8:50 a.m.

They have since swept the building and local Mounties are consulting with the explosive-devices unit.

The building is empty as police continue to determine if there are any explosive devices.

Columbia Street in front of the courthouse remained open as of 9:30 a.m., though the Fourth and Fifth avenue entrances are closed.

Monday’s incident is the latest in a long list of bomb threats and swatting calls in Kamloops dating back a couple of years, all of which have been pranks, with no explosives involved.

In November, the Tournament Capital Centre was close for a day after a bomb threat was called in. Last March, Kamloops Airport was evacuated following a bomb threat. Last April, a person called Summit elementary and other schools in B.C. with similar threats. That same month, Westsyde secondary was targeted.

And, on Feb. 19 of this year, Kamloops Mounties rushed to 1775 McKinley Court after receiving a call about a shooting. It was the second time in 15 months that police received a fake call about a shooting at the same address.

The B.C. Court of Appeal has upheld a ruling that the City of Kamloops correctly followed its procedures when it ruled out a bid on a firehall project from a construction firm.

True Construction Ltd. sued the City of Kamloops after it declined to accept its $3.4-million bid for construction of the new Aberdeen firehall in 2010.

Instead, citing irregularities in the company’s bid, the city went with a bid from Tri-City Contracting (B.C.) Ltd. — which was about $150,000 more expensive.

After discussions with lawyers, city staff recommended to council that it go with Tri-City’s bid.

Council approved that recommendation.

The appeal court backed a decision by B.C. Supreme Court Justice Hope Hyslop, who agreed the city was correct in ruling out a cheaper bid to construct the Aberdeen fire hall when True failed to meet its requirements.

Hyslop ruled faxed appendices to True’s bid did not meet the letter of the city bid, which called for a sealed document.

She also said a fax sent later was not an acceptable revision, something that allowed True an advantage in last-minute negotiations with subcontractors.

“The judge was correct to conclude True’s manner of proceeding involved a competitive advantage that is inconsistent with the integrity of the bidding process,” wrote B.C. Court of Appeal Justice David Harris.

“To permit this manner of proceeding would beget uncertainty and unfairness.”

A sentencing hearing got underway on Tuesday for a Kamloops drug dealer busted with a stash of fentanyl pills stamped to look like Percocet — a legal step the Crown says is the first fentanyl sentencing in B.C.

Matthew Hickson, 32, pleaded guilty to one count each of possession for the purpose of trafficking cocaine and fentanyl.

Federal Crown prosecutor Anita Chan is seeking a four-year prison sentence, relying on cases from Ontario courts where fentanyl traffickers have received very stiff sentences — including a first-time offender ordered to spend six years behind bars.

Hickson was busted by police in November 2014. Undercover officers followed him and a co-accused, Racquel Friedel, from a Sahali home to a house in Langley.

On the way back to Kamloops, police pulled the pair over and discovered a Louis Vuitton bag containing nearly 400 grams of cocaine and 490 fentanyl pills made to look like oxycodone, also known as Percocet.

Court heard the cocaine had a street value of up to $38,000 and the fentanyl could have fetched nearly $10,000 if sold for $20 per pill.

Elsewhere in the vehicle, police found steroids, marijuana, magic mushrooms and a cutting agent used to increase profits for cocaine dealers.

Chan presented several studies and reports outlining the dangers of fentanyl use, including papers from the BC Coroners Service and the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse.

Chan said B.C.’s Interior saw 21 fentanyl-related deaths in 2015 — up from two in 2012 — and had already tallied 15 in the first three months of this year.

“Mr. Hickson was travelling from Kamloops to the Lower Mainland and bringing dangerous drugs back to this community,” Chan said.

“The Crown is seeking a deterrent sentence. The courts have a role to play by sending the message that those who traffic in fentanyl deserve a significant sentence.”

Hickson has a brief criminal record with three convictions — one each for breach, fail to comply and driving while prohibited.

Defence lawyer Jeremy Jensen asked B.C. Supreme Court Justice Hope Hyslop to avoid making a precedent-setting decision guided by “society’s moral outrage” with fentanyl.

He pitched a jail sentence in the range of 12 to 15 months.

“There’s moral outrage against fentanyl,” Jensen said.

“The courts know that they must be careful to not buy into the moral outrage that might exist.”

Fentanyl is a Schedule 1 drug in Canada, putting it alongside cocaine, heroin and meth, among other narcotics, in the eyes of the law. Jensen asked Hyslop to hand down a sentence reflective of that.

“Schedule 1 drugs destroy people’s lives,” he said. “That’s why people who are before the courts receive harsh custodial sentences.

“We can’t say that because there is some media and moral outrage against the rise of fentanyl — that doesn’t mean it should be sentenced more than other Schedule 1 drugs. That’s what the Crown is asking.”

If harsher sentences for fentanyl traffickers should be handed down, Jensen argued, it should be at Ottawa’s request.

“The Crown is asking you to set a significant precedent,” he told Hyslop.

“Those types of sentences, if they are given, will come from parliament. They will be mandatory minimums.”

Hickson will return to court on May 9 to set a date for Hyslop’s decision. He is not in custody.

Two Kamloops lawyers are making a bid to overturn a B.C. Court of Appeal decision that found drivers have no expectation of privacy relating to data in their vehicle’s black box.

Fifty-four-year-old Wayne Fedan of Kamloops was convicted in September 2014 of dangerous driving causing death in connection to a crash four years earlier.

He was sentenced to three years in prison and handed a three-year driving ban to begin following his sentence.

The sentencing judge found data contained in the black box of Fedan’s pickup truck showed his foot was on the accelerator as he rounded a corner at more than twice the posted speed limit.

Lawyers Micah Rankin and Anthony Varesi have filed an argument with the Supreme Court of Canada. The court has yet to decide whether it will hear the appeal.

The March 20, 2010, crash on Mackenzie Avenue, at the turn in front of the entrance to McArthur Island, killed 20-year-old Brittany Plotnikoff and 38-year-old Kenneth Craigdaillie.

All three were at a party together and Fedan was driving them home.

Both the B.C. Supreme Court and B.C. Court of Appeal rejected arguments that police required a search warrant before accessing data in the vehicle’s black box (known as the sensing diagnostic module, or SDM).

Rankin and Varesi’s argue Canada’s highest court should consider the appeal based on what they call “an issue of national importance,” including four factors:

• Changes in technology mean automobiles have become “repositories of potentially vast amounts of personal information about drivers” — information that should have protection of privacy rights.

• The decision sets a precedent for seizure without a search warrant.

• The decision is at odds with rulings in senior Ontario courts, which found drivers have an expectation of privacy in material contained in the black box.

• The appeal asks whether the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms limits police from accessing data from devices in automobiles.

Dennis Adolph was found dead in the 4 Seasons Motel in Valleyview on Jan. 26. Gordon Camille is charged with second-degree murder. Facebook photo

The Crown will call 29 witnesses and present more than 13 hours of video evidence at the preliminary inquiry of a Kamloops man accused of murdering a 49-year-old man at a Valleyview motel in January.

Gordon Camille appeared in Kamloops provincial court on Thursday as lawyers discussed the two-week hearing, which is expected to take place in October or November.

The 65-year-old was charged with second-degree murder after Dennis Adolph was found dead at the 4 Seasons Motel on Jan. 26.

Details of the allegations against Camille, who is being held in custody, have not been made public.

Adolph’s death was the second homicide of 2016 in Kamloops.

Eric Charlie is charged with second-degree murder in connection to the Jan. 22 death of John Southwell, 30, who was killed during an altercation outside a Tranquille Road sushi restaurant.

Charlie, 32, is in custody and is due back in court on May 2.

A First Nations couple who claimed they are being “persecuted for being Indian” after being charged with poaching offences have asked a judge to throw out their charges because of excessive delay caused by the Crown.

Jay Coutts and Farrah Palmer are facing one count each of trafficking in wildlife.

Coutts is charged with an additional count of hunting during prohibited hours.

At previous court appearances, the pair said they intended to fight the charges on the grounds they violate their rights as natives.

In an interview outside court following an earlier appearance, Coutts told KTW he made a living selling meat — something he believes he has the right to do.

They were charged in June 2014 and had their first court appearance later that month. After a number of pre-trial hearings, a trial date was set for Sept. 24, 2015.

Coutts and Palmer were not represented by a lawyer.

They showed up for trial intending to represent themselves and were handed last-minute disclosure from the Crown.

Defence lawyer Greg Thompson, who was retained by the couple to make a constitutional argument based on delay, appeared in Kamloops Law Courts yesterday.

“On Sept. 24, the trial was set to be heard,” he said. “The accused were acting as self-represented litigants. They were handed two binders of 146 pages of Crown disclosure. This was the day of the trial.”

The trial was adjourned and Coutts and Palmer retained a lawyer.

Of the 22 months that have passed since the charges were laid, Thompson said, 18 months and two weeks of those delays fall at the hands of the Crown and institutional delay.

Thompson asked that the charges be thrown out.

The Crown case against Coutts and Palmer has been described in court as a straightforward one. Conservation officers went undercover and caught the couple selling meat, the Crown alleges.

Crown prosecutor Monica Fras told Kamloops provincial court Judge Roy Dickey that some of the 18 months of delay are the fault of Coutts and Palmer.

Fras said a four-month delay in late 2014 and early 2015 was caused by the accused.

In that case, a judge adjourned the matter to allow Coutts and Palmer to seek legal advice.

Dickey will deliver his decision at a later date.

Should a registered sex offender who admitted to sexting with a 15-year-old co-worker at a Kamloops pizza shop when he was 22 be allowed to become a lawyer?

According to the Law Society of B.C., no — at least not yet.

The Law Society released yesterday its decision on the application of the 29-year-old former Thompson Rivers University student.  At the request of the applicant, he is not named in the decision.

He applied to the Law Society in October 2014 to become an articled student — one of the last steps for law students before they become lawyers. Because of a number of issues in his past, including a criminal record, a hearing was held last May in front of a Law Society panel.

The panel heard the applicant enrolled in undergrad studies at Thompson Rivers University in 2009.

Also that year, he was employed as a delivery driver for a Kamloops pizza shop.

He became involved in a flirtatious relationship with a 15-year-old co-worker and they eventually became involved, to a limited extent, romantically.

The panel heard the two exchanged racy text messages and the applicant pressured the teen to send him nude photos. She sent pictures of herself in various states of undress.

The panel described the texts as disturbing.

“They are explicit and profane and would reflect very poor judgement even if they were sent to someone much older than a 15-year-old girl,” the panel stated.

The girl’s mother found the texts and called police.

The applicant turned himself in to Kamloops RCMP in September 2009 and spent the night in jail.

In 2011, he pleaded guilty to luring and was later handed a one-year conditional sentence and ordered to register as a sex offender for a decade — a term that expires in 2022.

The applicant found himself in hot water again in November 2014, while a law student at the University of B.C.

At a law school event, the panel heard, he threw an alcoholic drink at a female student who had insulted his appearance. He was banned from future law school events.

The following month, police busted him behind the wheel of a car-share vehicle after consuming seven to nine drinks. He was given an automatic 90-day driving ban.

Kamloops lawyer and former provincial court judge Bill Sundhu wrote a character reference for the applicant. The two met when the applicant volunteered on Sundhu’s campaign as a New Democrat candidate in Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo during last fall’s federal election. Sundhu shared his own experiences, having “messed up” himself, the panel heard.

In 2006, while Sundhu was a provincial court judge, he was arrested in Vancouver and spent a night in the drunk tank.  He later stepped down from the bench and stopped drinking.

In his letter, Sundhu called the applicant’s alcohol and marijuana use “problematic” and “not a good idea.”

The panel said the applicant can re-apply in 2017.

A man convicted of breaking into a home after a party and surprising a woman sleeping in her bedroom was sentenced Friday to 90 days in jail.

Steven Robison, 41, was convicted of break and enter with intent to commit mischief in connection to events three years ago in Lillooet.

He was originally charged with sexual assault, but the Crown could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt Robison touched the sleeping woman. She awoke to find him masturbating behind her.

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Peter Voith ruled Robison can serve his sentence on weekends. He has no related or recent criminal record and was described by friends as part of a pre-sentence report as gentle and hardworking.

Robison claimed he drank so much at the party that he he did not remember the evening’s events. He had been drinking, smoking marijuana and using cocaine. After hearing testimony, however, Robison understood his actions and expressed remorse, Voith said.

“It was patent that he was earnest [in his remorse],” Voith said.

The Crown had argued for a period of six months to one year in jail.

A Lytton man accused of murdering his uncle in January has been released on bail.

Colton Smith, 20, is charged with second-degree murder in connection to the Jan. 22 stabbing death of Jeremiah Johnson Smith.

Crown prosecutor Catriona Elliott said the two men became involved in an argument at a house party.

Eventually, court heard, the drunken fight spilled outside the house.

“The altercation continued for some time outside the residence, at which point Colton Smith goes into a neighbouring residence where a family is eating dinner,” Elliott said, noting Smith took a knife from the house’s kitchen.

“He was only in the residence for about a minute before he exited.

“At the end of the altercation, J.J., or Jeremiah Smith had been stabbed. He died from blood loss due to the stab wound.”

Defence lawyer Richard Kaiser pitched a bail plan he said will include 45 days at a drug and alcohol treatment facility in Dawson Creek, followed by monitored living in social housing in Kamloops.

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Dev Dley released Smith on bail, ordering him to undergo addictions treatment, obey a curfew, abstain from alcohol and stay away from Lytton.

Smith is due back in court on May 24.

A 19-year-old who broke conditions of his conditional sentence following a high-speed car chase during which he drove down the wrong lane of the Trans-Canada Highway will be returned to the care of the ministry rather than go to prison.

Tristan Olson was given a six-month conditional sentence earlier this year after pleading guilty to charges, including fleeing from police and dangerous operation of a motor vehicle.

He was given a six-month conditional sentence, including terms that he remain at home.

The incident, while Olson was on bail conditions, included leading police on a car chase.

It ended when he drove over an RCMP spike belt on Highway 5 North.

Olson fled, but was arrested hiding under a tarp.

Crown prosecutor Oliver Potestio said Olson was found by police as a passenger in a stolen vehicle and arrested by employees of a hardware store in Hope, in two different incidents during his conditional sentence.

He has been in custody since his latest arrest on April 13.

Provincial court judge Chris Cleaveley opted not to require Olson to serve the remainder of the six-month term in jail.

Instead, Olson will be released into the care of the Ministry of Children and Family Development.

He is a ward of the state and will live under 24-hour monitoring by the ministry in a specially designated suite in Kamloops.

“If you breach, you’ll be in jail,” Cleaveley warned.

A Crown prosecutor argued Tuesday that a couple alleged to have sold deer meat to undercover conservation officers was operating an illegal business.

Jay Coutts and Fara Palmer are each charged with trafficking in wildlife, while Coutts faces an additional count of illegal hunting. All charges are under the B.C. Wildlife Act.

“This is really an ongoing business for them,” Crown lawyer Joel Gold argued in provincial court.

“It’s a joint enterprise.”

Evidence was entered in the trial from conservation officers who testified they purchased deer meat from both Coutts, in Vancouver, and Palmer, in Cache Creek in spring 2013.

“He made the offer to sell deer, to sell wildlife,” Gold told provincial court judge Roy Dickey. “That’s absolutely clear in the evidence.”

The undercover operation by the conservation officer service was dubbed “Project Gator.”

Coutts and Palmer are challenging the charges on several fronts. They have made an application to have charges dropped due to what they argue is excessive delay by the Crown. They also assert aboriginal rights.

Dickey is scheduled to make a ruling on the delay application at a later date. while the aboriginal rights assertions will be argued later if Dickey finds Palmer and Coutts guilty under the act.

The couple asserted the Crown has no proof Coutts hunted anything, nor did the Crown call an expert to determine what kind of meat changed hands, including whether it was a domestic animal or fallow deer.

“There’s no proof whatsoever I hunted at all,” Coutts said in his final argument.

During final arguments, Dickey questioned whether undercover operators entrapped Palmer, who at first said she had nothing to supply, but later offered to sell meat from home.

The Crown, however, argued the operation differed little from a police drug bust.

A date has not been set for any of Dickey’s pending rulings.

RELATED

Accused in poaching case cite delay by Crown

Alleged First Nations poachers must stand trial, judge rules

Couple claims they are being ‘persecuted for being Indian’

By Barb Brouwer
Salmon Arm Observer

A former Salmon Arm couple who were convicted of assaulting their 14-year-old daughter by spanking her with a skipping rope and mini hockey stick in 2015 have received a conditional discharge in Salmon Arm provincial court.

The couple will serve 12 months of probation and, if they adhere to all provisions of the probation, will have no criminal record after three years. The parents cannot be identified in order to protect their daughter’s identity.

In addition, both parents are prohibited from applying corporal punishment to anyone under the age of 18 in their care and will be required to provide a DNA sample.

The couple had been found guilty of assault following a February 2015 incident in which the father found nude photos his daughter sent to her boyfriend via the mobile app Snapchat.

As punishment, the daughter chose spanking rather than losing her phone for an extended period of time.

During Tuesday’s sentencing hearing, Crown prosecutor Mariane Armstrong called the parents’ actions a breach of trust with a minor and asked the judge for a three-month conditional sentence to be served in the community, probation and a fine of $50 each.

Armstrong acknowledged the parents had shown remorse,  but particularly in the case of the mother, believed it stemmed from the resulting publicity rather than her actions.

Defence lawyer Ian McTavish asked for an unconditional discharge, saying the family had paid dearly for the parents’ mistake by having to move away from Salmon Arm and giving up their many volunteer activities, their church and their children’s schools.

McTavish said his clients acted out of loving and moral concern for their child and wanted to provide a strong message about the dangers of sexting.

He also pointed out it was the daughter’s friends who told school authorities about the bruising that resulted from the spanking.

“The daughter is not who complained; no one listened to her, the principal didn’t talk to her,” said McTavish, who read a few sentences of a three-page letter the daughter wrote in her parents’ defence.

“The spanking was a choice.  That’s what I picked. I don’t feel like I have a voice,” she wrote.

“I don’t want my parents to have a criminal record.

“I want them to be able to help out in the school and community.”

In handing down his decision, Judge Edmond de Walle said he referred to positive pre-sentencing reports for both parents and the many letters praising the couple for their Christian values, positive parenting and longtime volunteerism.

DeWalle noted the parents are clearly not a risk to the community, have undergone counselling, have no substance-abuse issues and have been productive members of society.

However, he added, aggravating factors include the use of weapons on a child under the age of 18.

He said no evidence has ever been produced that shows corporal punishment is effective, but noted there is a great amount of evidence showing corporal punishment is harmful for teens.

He admonished the parents for not having sought non-corporal alternatives from the many sources of help and guidance for serious issues.

Following the parents’ convictions in January, de Walle noted the reasons cited by the father and mother for the spankings, that they were punishing their daughter out of love, not hate.

“The child understood that her parents’s beliefs about discipline came from their adherence to the Bible, which they believe advocates the use of the ‘rod’ to spank, rather than the hands, as hands are to be used as instruments of love,” de Walle said in his ruling.

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BECKETT AND LETTS

A New Zealander facing a second murder trial on allegations he drowned his wife on Upper Arrow Lake near Revelstoke six years ago is making an application to move the proceedings out of Kamloops.

Peter Beckett, 59, is charged with murdering his wife, Laura Letts-Beckett in August 2010.

Last month, after a trial spanning three months and deliberations over seven days, the jury could not come to a unanimous verdict.

Supreme Court Justice Ian Meiklem determined the jury was hung and declared a mistrial. Beckett will undergo a second trial.

At a pre-trial conference yesterday in Kamloops, Beckett and his lawyer Donna Turko indicated they will apply to move the next trial to another city due to publicity surrounding the case.

The Crown’s case against Beckett, a former New Zealand town councillor who moved to Alberta to marry Laura Letts, is a circumstantial one.

Prosecutors allege he killed his wife out of greed, hoping to cash in on life-insurance and accidental-death benefits, as well as her teachers’ pension.

Beckett, meanwhile, maintained Lett-Beckett’s death was either suicide or an accident.

Letts-Beckett admitted to having suicidal thoughts in a 2007 diary entry.

Court heard Letts-Beckett went into the water while she and Beckett were on an evening boat ride near Shelter Bay Provincial Park campground.

She was not wearing a life- jacket and was not a strong swimmer.

A 52-year-old woman will be spared jail after attempting to steal a safe from a Sahali home — a crime she later told police was meant to help her grandchildren.

Brenda Bradford pleaded guilty to one count of theft in connection to  the Dec. 13, 2015, incident.

Crown prosecutor Oliver Potestio said occupants of a basement suite on Strathcona Terrace came home to witness a safe from upstairs sitting outside the front door on a dolly and a truck in the driveway. They were able to get a partial licence-plate number from the fleeing vehicle and contacted police.

Bradford was later arrested.

Police matched her shoes to footprints found outside the home.

Potestio said Bradford told police she had heard about the safe from an acquaintance who had earlier broken into the home.

Bradford brought a dolly along to wheel out the safe, what Potestio said showed an element of planning to the crime.

“It was motivated by a desire to help her grandchildren,” Potestio said.

Bradford is a former prolific offender who has struggled with drug abuse. She did not start using hard drugs until she was in her 30s.

Defence lawyer Michelle Stanford said Bradford is now on a Suboxone program. The drug blocks the effects of opioids, including feelings of well-being.

“She’s come a long way to reducing her drug use,” Stanford said.

Provincial court judge Len Marchand agreed with a joint sentencing submission. Bradford will serve a 12-month conditional sentence with an evening curfew, followed by a year of probation.