Richard Benton shot and killed three-year-old Labrador retriever-cross Phylo and eight-month-old English mastiff Ryker in December 2013 on Knouff Lake Road in Heffley Creek.

A hunter who believed he was taking aim at a wolf, but instead mistakenly killed two family dogs with a single shot, has been granted a conditional discharge in B.C. Supreme Court in Kamloops.

On the eve of what was scheduled to be a jury trial, Richard Benton pleaded guilty under the Criminal Code to killing an animal without lawful excuse. The Crown dropped a second charge of causing unnecessary pain and suffering to an animal.

Justice Frank Cole called Benton, 48, “an individual of good character who has made a terrible mistake.”

But the sentencing judge also said any principled hunter has a duty toward animals.

“Why would he let a dog die and suffer for so many hours? That’s what bothers me . . . It doesn’t matter if it’s a wolf — it’s an animal,” Cole said.

Crown prosecutor Alexandra Janse asked for a six-month conditional sentence with house arrest. But Justice Cole sided with defence lawyer Micah Rankin, who argued for a conditional discharge that will leave Benton without a criminal record if he completes a 12-month period of probation without incident.

Benton has no criminal record, has a long work history as a floor layer and is well respected in the local community, Rankin said. He has property at Knouff Lake and has frequented the area since he was a child.

The shooting occurred in December 2013 on Knouff Lake Road in Heffley Creek, a small community between Kamloops and Sun Peaks.

Benton, a lifelong hunter, was permitted to shoot a wolf. The statement of facts said wolves were known to be in the area and preyed on wildlife and domestic animals. Benton pulled his truck over and took aim at what he thought was a wolf.

“Mr. Benton made a mistake and panicked,” said Rankin, suggesting Benton soon realized he had killed a dog and fled the scene.

Benton had a responsibility to identify the animal he shot and ensure it was not suffering.

In fact, three-year-old Labrador retriever-cross Phylo was seriously wounded and died some time later from the bullet. The second dog, an eight-month-old English mastiff named Ryker, was also struck. It was found by owners Michael and Brenda Griffiths a day later and was put down due to its grievous injuries.

“This had a very significant affect on the family,” Janse said. “These dogs were beloved family members.”

Nearly 7,000 people signed a petition asking for the maximum sentence for Benton. Rankin said Benton received tough justice in the court of public opinion when the incident received significant media attention.

Benton is a hunting advocate who first took up the sport as a child of five. He is not allowed to possess firearms during the year of probation and must also pay $825 in restitution for veterinary bills.

Calling it “more of a regulatory offence,” Rankin argued the conditional discharge is appropriate because Benton’s actions do not deserve a criminal record. Receiving one would jeopardize his ability to be bonded for his work.

Ken Brown, the driver of this houseboat, was killed on July 3, 2010, when Leon Reinbrecht drove his speedboat into the vessel.
KTW file photo

A Crown prosecutor asked a B.C. Supreme Court judge Wednesday for a prison sentence of up to three-and-a-half years for a man convicted of recklessly driving his speedboat into a houseboat on Shuswap Lake, leaving one person dead.

Last fall, Leon Reinbrecht, 54, was found guilty of criminal negligence causing death and criminal negligence causing bodily harm. His sentencing is taking place now because defence lawyers unsuccessfully launched a Charter argument post-conviction, asking that the case be thrown out due to delay.

On July 3, 2010, following a fireworks display on Magna Bay, Reinbrecht drove his speedboat recklessly on Shuswap Lake, colliding nearly head-on with a houseboat piloted by Ken Brown.

Brown died at the scene. A number of passengers on both boats suffered less serious injuries.

Following a lengthy trial last year, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Sheri Donegan found Reinbrecht acted with “reckless disregard for the lives and safety of others.” Court heard he was out for a night-time joyride with his son and his son’s girlfriend and was driving in donuts and at a high rate of speed.

The lake was busy due to the fireworks show that had recently wrapped up and court heard it was a very dark night with little if any moonlight.

In his sentencing submissions Wednesday, Crown prosecutor Neil Flanagan asked Donegan for a sentence reflective of that reckless disregard given the risks of driving dangerously at night on a busy lake.

““Did he think to himself, ‘Oh what the hell, I’m going to do this anyway — I’m having so much fun’?” Flanagan said.

“Or did he not, at least sufficiently, turn his mind toward these risks?”

Flanagan asked Donegan to hand down a sentence that fits Reinbrecht’s crime.

“In cases of this nature, the two primary objectives of a sentence are to first of all denounce the criminal conduct and secondly to deter others from engaging in the same sort of conduct that, in this case, has caused such a great deal of harm,” he said.

“We, and I refer to all Canadian citizens, need to take care that we don’t cause harm to others.”

Court heard Reinbrecht has a criminal record including three convictions for impaired driving, most recently in 2000.

At trial, a Crown witness — one of the passengers on the speedboat — said Reinbrecht had been drinking and smoking marijuana prior to the crash.

“It is troubling,” Flanagan said of Reinbrecht’s history of driving drunk. “It does not cast Mr. Reinbrecht in the most favourable light.”

Flanagan said all of the factors should result in a prison sentence in the range of two-and-a-half to three-and-a-half years, to be followed by a five-year ban on operating a boat.

Defence lawyer Joe Doyle, on the other hand, pitched a two-year prison sentence for Reinbrecht.

Any sentence of two years or longer is served in a federal prison. Doyle described such facilities as intimidating for people who are not hardened criminals.

“The length of that term is less important than the fact of that term,” he said.

“If someone is going to engage in conduct that is criminal, they will be as deterred by a two-year sentence if they are someone who is otherwise law-abiding as they will by a three-and-a-half-year sentence.”

Reinbrecht, who has not said a word in court to other than to declare he was not guilty, responded to a question as to whether he had anything to say.

“I believe Mr. Doyle has already spoke about everything I could possibly say,” Reinbrecht said.

Donegan is expected to deliver a sentence Thursday at 2 p.m.

An allegedly “hyphy” Kamloops teenager charged with assault following a violent fracas at a raucous 500-person graduation party last June has been found not guilty.

The girl, now a Grade 12 student, was charged in connection with a confrontation between her and another girl.

Court heard the fight started because the alleged victim called the accused a “slut.”

Kamloops provincial court Judge Len Marchand acquitted the teen, who can’t be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, based largely on the fact witness testimony couldn’t account for what was said between the accused and the victim immediately before the fight broke out.

In court, Crown prosecutor Oliver Potestio described the ruckus as “a melee.” A witness said the accused was acting “hyphy” — a term meaning hyperactive and excited — in the moments leading up to the fight.

Another witness called the massive June 30, 2015, gathering, held near Inks Lake, a “passing the torch” party, at which Grade 11 and 12 students from high schools across Kamloops gather. Court heard most of those in attendance were drunk.

The Crown’s main witness, a 17-year-old boy, could not say for certain what was said prior to the altercation — one of many that evening, court heard — so Marchand found the accused girl not guilty.

The alleged victim, who was described by witnesses as a competent fighter, did not testify.

A Kamloops man who used a can opener to break into a pharmacy in an attempt to steal medicine has been handed a six-month jail sentence.

Shaen Gallagher pleaded guilty in Kamloops provincial court on Thursday to one count of break and enter.

Court heard the 39-year-old was arrested on Jan. 11 after police responding to a burglar alarm at Pratt’s Compounding Pharmacy at Nicola Street and Third Avenue found him inside the store.

Mounties determined Gallagher used the can opener to remove the frame of an exterior window, then entered the pharmacy and turned off the electrical breaker.

When police arrived, they found a bag of medicine on a counter that had been left there by Gallagher when his burglary was interrupted.

Kamloops provincial court Judge Stephen Harrison handed Gallagher a six-month jail sentence and placed him on probation with an order barring him from going to the pharmacy.

The driver of a speedboat that crashed into a houseboat in the Shuswap six years ago, killing the houseboat pilot, has been sentenced to three years in prison.

Leon Reinbrecht was convicted on one count each of criminal negligence causing death and criminal negligence causing bodily harm following a trial last year. B.C. Supreme Court Justice Sheri Donegan handed down her sentence on Thursday.

Reinbrecht, 54, was behind the wheel of a recklessly driven speedboat on the night of July 3, 2010, following a post-Canada Day fireworks display on Magna Bay.

The lake was busy, court heard, and witnesses said they saw Reinbrecht’s boat pulling donuts and speeding close to shore.

Ken Brown was at the helm of his houseboat when Reinbrecht’s speedboat collided with it nearly head-on. Brown died at the scene and other people on both boats suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

“While Mr. Reinbrecht did not set out to harm anyone that night, he took a risk,” Donegan said.

“There was evidence in this case of extreme behaviour, bravado and machismo.

“Mr. Reinbrecht made what can only be described as terrible decisions that had catastrophic consequences.”

At trial, defence lawyer Joe Doyle argued Brown’s houseboat was not properly lit. Following the crash, investigators determined at least one of the houseboat’s lights was not functioning properly.

After Reinbrecht was sentenced, Brown’s sister spoke to reporters outside the Kamloops courthouse.

“The time given to him will be well-served,” said Patti Oliver.

“It won’t bring back Ken.”

Oliver said the family is not unhappy with the three-year sentence.

“Three? It’s kind of the maximum we thought he’d get,” she said.

“He still is responsible for a lot of pain, people suffering.

“We just hope he doesn’t appeal.”

After the sentencing, defence lawyer Fred Kaatz told KTW he and Doyle are “strongly considering” an appeal of Reinbrecht’s conviction.

If an appeal is granted, Reinbrecht could apply for bail.

Kamloops RCMP Supt. Brad Mueller displays the large collection of drugs, money and guns seized from what police say is the newly arrived Wolf Pack gang.
Dave Eagles/KTW

Loaded “ghost guns,” a semiautomatic handgun with a silencer, an authentic RCMP duty jacket, thousands of dollars worth of drugs and more than $25,000 in cash is some of what police found when they executed a search warrant last week at the Batchelor Heights home of a local gang leader and one of his underlings, a judge has been told.

The Crown outlined much of its case against Bruce Davis and Christopher Pace at Pace’s bail hearing yesterday in Kamloops provincial court.

Prosecutor Iain Currie said Davis, 37, is the leader of the local faction of the Wolf Pack, a Lower Mainland-based coalition of gangsters from the Hells Angels, Independent Soldiers and Red Scorpions.

Davis is facing 18 drug- and firearms-related charges stemming from the May 26 raid of a home on Grasslands Boulevard.

Pace, 22, is facing seven charges — three of possession of a controlled substance for the purpose of trafficking, one of possession of stolen property and two firearms-related counts.

Amanda Nicholson, described in court as Davis’ girlfriend, is also facing a raft of firearms and drug charges.

Pace and Davis are in custody, while Nicholson, 28, was released by police.

Currie said Kamloops Mounties began investigating the Wolf Pack in October.

“They received information that the new group arrived in Kamloops with the goal of establishing themselves in the local drug trade,” he said, noting the gang uses violence and intimidation to protect its turf.

Court heard investigators searching Pace’s bedroom in the Batchelor home found a shoebox containing amounts of heroin, cocaine and meth, as well as $2,150 in cash.

More drugs and money were found throughout the house, along with a number of firearms. One was a Tec-9 with a 13-inch silencer, while two others were loaded ghost guns — illegal firearms purposely built with no traceable markings.

“In other words, it’s a crime gun,” Currie said. “It’s purpose is to be untraceable — and it’s built for that purpose.”

Currie said the RCMP jacket found by investigators inside the home is the type of garment worn by plainclothes officers when executing search warrants.

“According to the RCMP, it’s an authentic RCMP jacket,” he said. “It’s not the current model they wear, but it is authentic.”

Currie asked that Pace be held in custody to protect the public’s confidence in the justice system.

“This is a gang coming to the Kamloops area in order to take over the drug trade here,” he said.

“This is an enterprise devoted to crime — the sale of drugs and the sort of violence that goes along with the drug trade.”

Pace has no criminal record.

He is due back in court to find out if he will receive bail on June 9.

Davis is slated to make his next appearance on the same day.

SEARCH AND DESTROY

Kamloops Mounties displayed an array of drugs and weapons at the RCMP’s Battle Street detachment yesterday, contraband police say was seized from various Kamloops residences and all connected to the Wolf Pack gang.

Supt. Brad Mueller said seven search warrants executed in the past four months have effectively “dismantled” the gang, a Lower Mainland-based group composed of Hells Angels, Independent Soldiers and Red Scorpions members.

The drugs and weapons were seized in the following raids: Feb. 25 on Valleyview Drive, March 24 on Tranquille Road, March 26 on the North Shore, April 19 on 13th Street, April 24 on Westsyde Road, May 6 on 13th Street, May 26 on Grasslands Boulevard.

The following was seized from the various busts:

Valleyview: cocaine, marijuana, a shotgun and a crossbow

Tranquille Road: two cocaine presses, a handgun, a sawed-off shotgun, and a variety of drugs including MDMA, cocaine, meth, heroin, steroids, Viagra and 625 tabs of fentanyl

North Shore: crack cocaine, meth, cocaine,  heroin, fentanyl, marijuana, ammunition and bear spray

13th Street: cocaine, two stolen bikes, a sawed off shotgun and ammunition, 22 calibre clips and ammunition

Westsyde Road: a pair of 45 calibre handguns, steroids and both cocaine and crack cocaine

13th Street: cocaine, crack cocaine, heroin and meth

Grasslands Boulevard: cocaine, heroin, marijuana, fentanyl, meth, MDMA and 66 grams of unknown powder

Three months after B.C.’s top court upheld the conviction of a former Lytton support worker who stripped and shaved the body hair of a young man passed out at his house, Michael Hume’s appeal of his three-year prison sentence has been thrown out.

Last June, the 48-year-old was ordered to spend three years behind bars for the bizarre August 2013 incident. He appealed that sentence on the grounds that B.C. Supreme Court Justice Sheri Donegan erred in considering the offence a “serious sexual assault.”

His lawyer also claimed three years in prison was “demonstrably unfit” considering the circumstances of the offence.

On Friday, a three-judge B.C. Court of Appeal panel dismissed the appeal of Hume’s sentence.

“In summary, the manner in which Mr. Hume shaved [the victim’s] genitals and other body parts was highly invasive, humiliating and degrading,” wrote Justice Nicole Garson.

“The fact that there was no actual penetration or physical injury is not, in these circumstances, determinative of the seriousness of the assault.”

During Hume’s trial, court heard the incident split the Fraser Canyon First Nations community of Lytton between sympathy for the respected support worker and community organizer and his victim, a young adult whose name is protected by a court-ordered publication ban.

The victim was emotional during his testimony, struggling through tears as he testified to waking up on an August morning in 2013 after a drinking session as Hume was shaving his pubic region.

Much of his body hair had been removed.

He said Hume laughed and said, “Your girlfriend will like it.”

Hume then drove the young man home, gave him $50 and warned him not to tell anyone. Hume earlier threatened him not to leave.

Hume’s earlier appeal of his conviction was based, in part, on the fact that body hair found in his vacuum was never scientifically identified as having come from the victim.

That appeal was dismissed in March.

During the trial, Hume denied shaving the complainant. He continues to deny the offence.

Extra security was on hand in a crowded Kamloops courtroom on Friday as two men accused of killing a 61-year-old Cariboo man in 2014 were granted bail.

Wyatt Boffa, 26, and Kodi Tower, 28, were released on a number of strict conditions, including orders they stay away from the village of Clinton, which is on Highway 97, about 120 kilometres northwest of Kamloops.

Both men are charged with manslaughter in connection to the Sept. 11, 2014, death of James Painter. They were arrested last month in Kelowna.

Crown prosecutor Chris Balison called the allegations against Boffa and Tower “serious,” but none of the alleged circumstances were read in court.

More than two-dozen people were in Courtroom 2B at the Kamloops Law Courts for the brief bail hearing, with three extra deputy sheriffs standing guard.

While on bail, Boffa and Tower will not be allowed to contact any Crown witnesses or any members of Painter’s family. Both men were ordered to reside with family in the Okanagan — Boffa in Enderby and Tower in Kelowna.

They are also prohibited from possessing knives and firearms.

Boff and Tower are due back in Kamloops provincial court on July 18.

A volatile love triangle in Salmon Arm led to the murder of a 22-year-old man at the hands of two high school students that was only solved when police launched a Mr. Big undercover operation nearly four years later, jurors have been told.

A 24-year-old Salmon Arm man is standing trial in B.C. Supreme Court in Kamloops, charged with first-degree murder in connection to the Nov. 21, 2008, death of Tyler Myers. A 25-year-old woman is also charged, but a date for her trial has not yet been set.

(Because both accused were under the age of 18 at the time of the alleged incident, neither can be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act. KTW will refer to them as Young Male, or Y.M., and Young Female, or Y.F.)

On Monday, a 12-person jury heard an opening statement from Crown prosecutor Bill Hilderman.

He said Myers and Y.M. both believed they were in a relationship with Y.F. and both were aware of the other’s involvement with her.

“Understandably, this caused friction between the two men,” Hilderman said.

“There was an incident where [Y.M.] got into an altercation with Mr. Myers where he pushed him. . . . Mr. Myers said he would kill him.”

Hilderman said Y.M. and Y.F. then hatched a plan to borrow a gun from a friend and lure Myers to an empty schoolyard near a forested area. Y.F. planned to have Myers stand in a lit location of the schoolyard, jurors were told, and leave him momentarily under the guise of going to the bathroom.

“[Y.M.] was hiding in the woods where it was dark,” Hilderman said.

“When he saw him in the clear, he shot him once. Mr. Myers staggered and went a few steps then fell down.

“[Y.M.] then shot him in the back, and [Y.F.] said to shoot him in the head, so he shot him in the head. Mr. Myers was clearly dead after that.”

Y.M. was interviewed by police two days later and denied the murder. The investigation slowed after that, Hilderman said, but police launched a Mr. Big undercover operation in June 2012 targeting Y.F.

Undercover Mounties posing as gangsters convinced Y.F. they could help her clear up any suspicion if she told them everything she knew about the murder, jurors were told.

“They told her they had a guy who was dying of cancer and he would take the fall for it,” Hilderman said. “But they also needed to hear [Y.M.’s] side of the event.”

Hilderman said Y.M. later told police he felt “stupid” for having been manipulated by Y.F.

The first witness called by the Crown was the victim’s mother, Barbara Myers.

She said she dropped her son off the night of the murder at a Salmon Arm school.

“He said he was meeting [Y.F.] because he was in a situation where [Y.F.] had a friend who I guess viewed himself as [Y.F.’s] girlfriend,” she said.

“They were going to talk about the situation. They were going to meet and they were going to talk about this triangle.”

Barbara Myers said her son seemed “distressed” before she dropped him off.

“I told him to bring [Y.F.] back for supper,” she said.

“He said he would probably do that.”

The next day, she said, two detectives showed up at her door to say her son was dead.

Prior to the Hilderman’s opening statement, Y.M. pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. The Crown did not accept the plea and said the trial, which is expected to last about a month, will continue under the first-degree murder charge.

A former clubhouse manager of the Kamloops Golf & Country Club told a sentencing judge on Monday she “lost a second family” after being caught stealing more than $52,000 from the club over a two-year period.

Michelle Olson, 43, pleaded guilty to theft over $5,000 in B.C. Supreme Court in Kamloops.

Olson started working at the Tranquille Road golf club in Brocklehurst as a dishwasher at 14, consecutively working through jobs as a waitress, cart girl, bookkeeper and, finally, clubhouse manager.

“My activity caused me to lose my second family,” she said of the hundreds of club members.

“I broke the trust of a lot of people. It wasn’t just an employer.”

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Gary Weatherill agreed with a joint submission from the Crown and defence for a one-year conditional sentence.

Olson will serve the first six months of her conditional sentence under house arrest, while the latter half will be served under a curfew. She is also required to report her conviction to any future employers.

Following the charge, Olson lost her job and later her house after she used the equity to pay $25,000 to the golf club’s insurer to satisfy restitution. The club’s losses were covered, said defence lawyer Don Campbell.

Crown prosecutor Brian McKinley said Olson used the club’s credit card, and covered up evidence, between 2011 and 2013 to make purchases for various uses, including travel, restaurants, clothes, sporting goods and children’s toys.

Campbell said Olson cracked under the pressure of work and family life. When the club ran into financial problems, her hourly wage was reduced to $15 from $24. At the same time, Campbell said, she was doing work previously done by three people.

At home, two of Olson’s children were diagnosed with diseases, while her youngest daughter was so dependent Olson was forced to take her to work. Her husband can no longer work and is on a disability. Olson was eventually diagnosed with bipolar disorder. She stopped drinking 14 years ago.

Olson has since moved to Kelowna to start anew. She said she was humiliated every time she left the house on errands because she would constantly run into members from the club.

Justice Weatherill commended Olson for making amends and admitting to her problems.

“It’s refreshing when you hear someone take responsibility,” Weatherill said.

Firefighters work to rescue a man and woman trapped in a Hyundai SUV after their vehicle was T-boned by theft suspects on Friday, May 27. The victims remain in hospital, while the couple accused of crashing into them was arrested the next day in Vernon.
Adam Williams/KTW

Charges have been laid against a Saskatchewan couple accused of going on a crime spree last month that included thefts of lottery tickets and a spectacular crash on a downtown Kamloops street.

Roderick Mervin Bailey and Jodi Marie Pechawis were arrested in Vernon on May 28 and are facing multiple charges.

The day before, police allege, they were involved in a crash at Eighth Avenue and Columbia Street.

A Suzuki travelling south on Eighth blew through a stop sign at Columbia T-boning a westbound Hyundai SUV and injuring the two people inside — a man and woman who remain in hospital with  injuries.

The crash scene was serious enough to prompt drivers of passing vehicles to stop and offer help, including David Retzer, who left his Ford Focus running while he rushed to the wrecked vehicles and called 911 on his cellphone.

The white Suzuki allegedly being driven by theft suspects.

While he checked on the couple in the Hyundai, the suspects in the Suzuki stole his Focus and sped away south on Eighth Avenue, eluding police vehicles and a police helicopter.

A day later, on Saturday, Vernon Mounties received a report of theft of lottery tickets from a store and were aware of the Kamloops file. Vernon officers found the suspects in the stolen Ford Focus and arrested them

Prior to the crash, police were investigating Bailey, 43, and Pechawis, 34, for alleged theft of lottery tickets from various stores in Kamloops.

In fact, shortly before the crash, a Kamloops Mountie found the suspect vehicle — a Suzuki with Saskatchewan licence plates — connected to the lottery thefts. It was unoccupied and parked on the North Shore. However, as the officer waited for a tow truck to remove the vehicle, the two suspects managed to get in the vehicle and drive away.

Police say the officer called in the theft and told fellow officers the direction the Suzuki was heading. Shortly thereafter, the Suzuki was spotted on the South Shore by another Mountie, but police say a chase was not initiated due to traffic in the area.

Bailey is facing four counts of theft, two each of possession of property obtained by crime, dangerous driving and failing to stop at an accident and a lone count of theft of a motor vehicle.

Pechawis has been charged with three counts of theft and one of theft of a motor vehicle.

Both are expected to appear in court later this month.

Kim Robinson as he appeared in 2008, after capturing child killer Allan Schoenborn in the woods outside Merritt. KTW file photo

The Nicola Valley outdoorsman who tracked down child killer Allan Schoenborn after he evaded police for 10 days in the bush has been charged with several counts of illegal hunting.

The trial for Kim Robinson, 59, began Tuesday in provincial court. The Crown alleges he targeted a bobcat without a special hunting licence and used cougar dogs to track the fleeing animal. Robinson is charged with three counts under the Wildlife Act, one of them for having an unrelated tag for a bear improperly marked.

Robinson gained national celebrity in the spring of 2008 when he recounted tracking down the frail and starving Schoenborn, who fled his home in Merritt after stabbing to death his three children: Kaitlynne, 10, Max, 8, and Cordon, 5.

Following a trial, Schoenborn was found not criminally responsible on account of mental disorder.

Robinson is a hunter and runs a trapline. Accompanied by his dog and carrying a rifle, he roamed roads and scanned ditches looking for Schoenborn. Robinson was portrayed in national media as a tough-talking, hard-core outdoorsman who took matters into his own hands.

At trial Tuesday, conservation officer Jonathan Paquin testified he checked on Robinson on Jan. 3, 2015, while on patrol. He said he saw Robinson in his truck on a road west of Merritt appearing to scan a field. In the background, Paquin said he could hear hounds baying in the distance.

Paquin said Robinson yelled him at several times during the encounter.

“He said he didn’t have time for this and was in a hurry,” Paquin testified, noting Robinson told him his cougar dogs were “‘on a bobcat.'”

Crown prosecutor Catriona Elliott said Robinson told the conservation officer he was trapping and therefore didn’t need a special tag to hunt a bobcat. But under regulation, she argued, dogs can’t be used on a trapline to chase. Dogs can only be used under a hunting licence with the special tag — which Robinson didn’t have.

The conservation officer said Robinson told him he was allowed use his dogs to trap an animal.

“Mr. Robinson became angry and began to yell me,” Paquin said. “He alluded to case law and said he’s been down this road.”

A man alleged to have hidden in a wooded area and kill a romantic rival at a staged meeting while a high school student in 2008 likely fired an additional fatal shot directly to the back of the victim’s head while standing over his body, a jury has been told.

The 24-year-old man is standing trial in B.C. Supreme Court in Kamloops on one count of first-degree murder in relation to the Nov. 21, 2008, death of Tyler Myers, 22, in a Salmon Arm schoolyard. Also charged is a 25-year-old woman whose trial date has not yet been set.

Because both were under the age of 18 at the time of the alleged incident, neither can be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

A 12-person jury has heard the accused and Myers both believed they were involved in relationships with the female in late 2008.

Crown prosecutor Bill Hilderman said the accused and the female hatched a plan to kill Myers by luring him to a schoolyard for an evening meeting, where the accused was hiding in a wooded area with a rifle. Hilderman said the female took Myers to a pre-arranged location outside the school, where the accused had a clear shot from his hidden location.

Jurors were told the accused shot Myers once in the back from within the treed area, then emerged and shot him twice more on the orders of the female — once in the back and once in the head.

Taking the witness stand on Tuesday, an RCMP investigator who was on scene outside the school in the hours after the slaying said it would have been impossible for Myers to see the spot from which the accused is alleged to have fired the first shot.

RCMP Cpl. Eric Page said it was too dark for Myers to have seen the shooter in the trees.

Dr. James Stephen, who conducted an autopsy on Myers following his death, said two of the three shots would have been fatal on their own. He said Myers suffered “massive blood loss” when one of the bullets fired into his back punctured his heart.

“If this had occurred on the front steps of a major cardio-thoracic institute, he may have survived,” Stephen said. “Death would have occurred within minutes of sustaining that injury. The effect would have been catastrophic blood loss resulting in death.”

The other fatal shot, Stephen said, was the one to Myers’ head.

“The gun was directly behind the head,” he said. “The bullet went from back to front.”

Stephen said the trajectory of the bullet fired into the back of Myers’ head was consistent with someone standing above him, shooting down as he lay on the ground.

According to Stephen, Myers was alive when each of the three shots were fired.

Court has previously heard the accused and the female borrowed a gun from a friend to kill Myers.

The trial, which began on Monday, is slated to last about a month.

RELATED

Love-triangle murder trial begins in Kamloops

The girlfriend of what the Crown alleges is a gang leader attempting to establish operations in Kamloops was refused bail Wednesday.

Amanda Nicholson is facing 19 counts, including weapons offences and possession of stolen property, following an RCMP raid last month.

Details of the hearing in provincial court are under a publication ban.

Provincial court judge Stella Frame ruled Nicholson will not be released on bail.

Nicholson was arrested along with her boyfriend, Bruce Davis, and another man, Christopher Pace, following the raid.

At an earlier bail hearing for Pace, a Crown prosecutor said Davis, 37, is the leader of the local faction of the Wolf Pack, a Lower Mainland-based coalition of gangsters from the Hells Angels, Independent Soldiers and Red Scorpions.

Davis is facing 18 drug- and firearms-related charges stemming from the May 26 raid of a home on Grasslands Boulevard.

Pace, 22, is facing seven charges — three of possession of a controlled substance for the purpose of trafficking, one of possession of stolen property and two firearms-related counts. The ruling on his bail application is set for Thursday.

The RCMP raid netted drugs, a small amount of cash and firearms, including some equipped with silencers.

A high school student and his ex-girlfriend became suspects in a murder staged to look like a drug deal gone bad three weeks after the violent slaying when police obtained authorization to intercept their text messages, a jury has been told.

And, court heard, among the messages read by investigators were a number of “sexting” conversations between a teenaged girl now charged with murder and several different men in Canada and the U.S.

Tyler Myers, 22, died after being shot three times in a Salmon Arm schoolyard on Nov. 21, 2008, in what has been described in court as a love triangle turned deadly.

One of the high school students accused of first-degree murder in relation to the killing, now a 24-year-old man, is standing trial in B.C. Supreme Court in Kamloops.

His co-accused, now a 25-year-old woman, has not yet had a date set for her trial.

Under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, neither accused can be named because they were under 18 at the time of Myers’ death.

Both were arrested in December 2012, at the conclusion of an elaborate RCMP Mr. Big undercover operation.

Jurors have been told that both Myers and the accused male were involved romantically with the accused female.

Crown prosecutor Bill Hilderman said the teenaged couple hatched a plan to borrow a rifle from a friend and invite Myers for an evening meeting in the schoolyard of Bastion elementary.

In the schoolyard, Hilderman said, the accused male hid with the gun in a wooded area.

He said the accused female then left Myers alone for a brief time pretending to go to the washroom, leaving the accused male a clear shot at the victim’s back.

The bullet knocked Myers to the ground, court heard, and the accused male approached him and fired two more shots — one into his back and one into his head — at the urging of the accused woman.

The doctor who performed Myers’ autopsy said two of the three shots would have been fatal — one to the heart, causing “catastrophic blood loss.”

Both accused were interviewed in the days after Myers death and both denied any involvement.

In court Wednesday, jurors were shown an hour-long video of the accused male’s interview with police two days after the murder.

The video showed the accused male, a soft-spoken and polite young man on tape, speaking with an RCMP detective in a nondescript interview room at the Salmon Arm detachment.

He described the accused female as his best friend since Grade 7 and said they had dated previously, but broke up two months before Myers was killed.

The accused told police he was at home the night of the murder, specifically mentioning having watched a Toronto Raptors game on TV.

During the interview, he recounted an altercation with Myers two or three weeks earlier, but said he ran away.

He described Myers as a low-level drug dealer and suggested he might have been killed over a drug debt.

In court, retired RCMP Sgt. Gordon Geary said the murder initially appeared to have been drug-related.

“There were certain indications that it could have been drug activity,” he said. “We were looking into that.”

But, Geary said, the investigation’s direction changed on Dec. 11, 2008, when police received authorization to intercept text messages of both teenaged couple.

None of the text messages were read in court, but Geary said their contents made both the male and female accused suspects in the death.

In her cross-examination of Geary, defence lawyer Donna Turko painted the accused female as a manipulative young woman.

Turko said the accused female began dating one of Myers’ friends in the days that followed his death. In addition, she said, intercepted text messages showed multiple sexual conversations between the accused female and different men, some from outside of Canada.

“She had a number of men or boys on the go in terms of her sexual appetite,” Turko said, mentioning something she called “the California connection,” referencing two men in the U.S. who had been texting with the accused female.

“There was some discussion that she was going to go down there and have sex with one or both of them. It was more than you’d expect to see from a 17-year-old girl.”

Geary agreed that some of the texts were sexual in nature.

“I was aware that there was some sexting going on,” he said.

Following Geary’s evidence, which wrapped up yesterday, the Crown will begin calling Mr. Big RCMP witnesses.

Jurors have been told undercover Mounties posing as gangsters convinced the accused female to confess by telling her a terminally ill member of their criminal organization would take the fall, leaving her free of suspicion.

Court heard part of the undercover operation included taking the accused female on a trip to Vancouver for a Madonna concert.

The trial, which began on Monday, is expected to last about one month.

An alleged member of a violent drug-dealing gang trying to establish itself in Kamloops learned on Thursday he will spend the foreseeable future behind bars.

Christopher Pace was arrested during a police raid of a Batchelor Heights home on May 26. He is facing seven charges relating to drugs and firearms.

The 22-year-old was arrested alongside Bruce Davis, who is alleged to be the leader of the Kamloops faction of the Wolf Pack gang, and Amanda Nicholson, Davis’ girlfriend.

All three remain behind bars.

Police believe the Wolf Pack is a Lower Mainland-based coalition of members of the Hells Angels, Independent Soldiers and Red Scorpions. Court heard Kamloops Mounties have been investigating the group locally since October.

During the raid of the Batchelor Heights home last month, court heard, police seized various drugs, a small amount of cash and multiple firearms — including two “ghost guns,” which are firearms built to be untraceable.

At a hearing on Thursday, Kamloops provincial court Judge Stephen Harrison ruled Pace’s release on bail would cause the public to question the justice system given recent gun violence throughout B.C.

Harrison ordered Pace to remain behind bars.

He is due back in court on June 20.

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The pilot of a speedboat that ran head-first into a houseboat on Shuswap Lake, killing its owner and injuring passengers, is appealing his conviction for criminal negligence.

Lawyers acting for Leon Reinbrecht have filed grounds with the B.C. Court of Appeal to have his conviction overturned.

Reinbrecht, 54, was convicted on one count each of criminal negligence causing death and criminal negligence causing bodily harm following a trial last year. He was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison.

Kamloops lawyer Fred Kaatz, who was co-counsel along with Joe Doyle, said Thursday lawyers will argue B.C. Supreme Court Justice Sheri Donegan erred when she ruled Reinbrecht’s Charter rights were not breached by delays in prosecution and the trial itself.

The grounds for appeal also state the sentencing judge misconstrued evidence at the trial.

Reinbrecht was behind the wheel of a recklessly driven speedboat on the night of July 3, 2010, following a post-Canada Day fireworks display on Magna Bay.

The lake was busy and witnesses said they saw Reinbrecht’s boat pulling donuts and speeding close to shore.

Ken Brown was impaired himself while at the helm of his slow-moving houseboat when Reinbrecht’s speedboat collided with it nearly head-on. But Donegan said there was nothing he could have done to prevent the nearly head-on crash.

Brown died at the scene and other people on both boats suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

At trial, Doyle argued Brown’s houseboat was not properly lit. Following the crash, investigators determined at least one of the houseboat’s lights was not functioning properly.

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A man standing trial for first-degree murder in connection to the shooting death of a romantic rival while a Grade 12 student in 2008 admitted the slaying to an undercover cop four years later in the hopes it would clear him of any suspicion.

In B.C. Supreme Court in Kamloops yesterday, jurors listened to audio recordings and watched video of the accused and his ex-girlfriend having conversations with undercover Mounties posing as gangsters.

Tyler Myers was killed in the schoolyard of Bastion elementary in Salmon Arm on Nov. 21, 2008. He was shot three times — twice in the back and once in the back of the head.

The man standing trial was 16 at the time of Myers’ death and is now 24. He cannot be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

His ex-girlfriend, also charged with first-degree murder, was 17 at the time and is now 25.

She also cannot be named and is slated to stand trial in November.

According to the Crown, the two accused lured Myers, 22, to the schoolyard with the plan to kill him.

Crown prosecutor Bill Hilderman said the male accused was hiding in a wooden area and fired a bullet into Myers’ back when he had a clear shot. Court heard he then emerged from the wooded area and fired two more shots at the direction of Myers. In court, the incident has been described as a love triangle turned deadly.

Both accused were interviewed by police in the days following the murder. They denied any involvement, but became suspects three weeks later after investigators obtained authorization to intercept their text messages.

Court heard police resources were drained and the investigation slowed.

Late in 2011, police decided to launch a Mr. Big undercover operation in an attempt to gain confessions.

The investigation targeted the female accused and began in the summer of 2012.

In October 2012, court heard, the undercover Mounties took the female accused on a work trip to Saskatchewan.

During a stop for coffee in the town of Ceylan, jurors were told, one of the undercover officers thanked the female accused for her help in establishing an alibi for a fictitious murder he claimed to have committed.

Testifying in court yesterday, the corporal said she then told him she had committed a murder of her own. He said he told her the criminal organization could clear her of suspicion.

If the fake gang had all the details, the corporal said, it could pin the murder on a terminally ill fall guy who was desperate for money to send his daughter to college.

The fall guy, who the female accused met in a Regina hospital, was actually another undercover officer.

In court yesterday, jurors listened to recordings of conversations between both accused and two undercover Mounties posing as gangsters.

The recordings were made on Oct. 29, 2012. That day, court heard, the female accused and two undercover Mounties drove to the male accused’s house in Salmon Arm.

“It was for [the female accused] to understand the seriousness of what we were doing, and therefore it was for her to get as much detail from [the male accused] as possible for the fall guy,” said the corporal, whose name is protected by a court-ordered publication ban.

In a vehicle outside the male accused’s house, the female accused pleaded with him to come clean.

“I’ve taken shit to the grave,” she told him.

“I’ve never told anyone about it. Just working with these guys, there’s stuff that came up and that I saw happen. It’s fine.

“Shit happened and it was a spur-of-the-moment thing. They’re going to clear it up.

“Things that I’ve seen with these guys, they’re not cops.”

The accused male at first refused to tell his story, but the undercover corporal pressured him and told him police were re-visiting the murder.

“I know that [the female accused] and you got into a situation with this Tyler dude and Tyler got dropped,” he said in the recording.

“All you have to do is look at the newspaper from back then and know Tyler got dropped. The guy that I work for, he looked into a few things and f—in’ heat’s coming.

“When f—in’ heat comes, you’re going to f—in’ be angry at yourself. You’re going to be pissed off at yourself.”

After much discussion, the accused male admitted to killing Myers. He said he shot him three or four times with a rifle he had borrowed from a friend.

The accused male told the corporal that after the murder, they returned the firearm to their friend and then “went for Slurpees.”

Both accused were arrested in December 2012.

The trial, which started on Monday, is expected to last about a month.

An unapologetic drug dealer and addict who refused treatment — saying selling methamphetamine was her job — has been sentenced to six months in jail.

Donna Davidson, 39, pleaded guilty to two counts of trafficking in a controlled substance after selling $80 worth of methamphetamine to undercover RCMP on two occasions on the night of Sept. 11, 2013.

Davidson has no criminal record and is the single parent of a young teen.

Defence lawyer Chris Thompson said he encouraged Davidson to seek help for her addictions, as did staff at the probation office.

Davidson told B.C. Supreme Court Justice Gary Weatherill she sells drugs to pay bills and raise her son.

“I need to pay my rent,” she said during the sentence hearing.

“I don’t want to leave a job without having another job to go to.”

The Crown asked for a six-month jail sentence.

A conditional sentence order is not available under the Criminal Code, but lesser penalties, including a suspended sentence, may be levied.

Justice Weatherill opted for the six-month sentence, telling Davidson “it’s time to help you.”

“If a period of incarceration weren’t ordered, you would continue with that lifestyle and continue trafficking. It would continue until you’re caught again.”

Weatherill said he hopes Davidson can receive treatment in the correctional system.

Tyler Myers was killed in the schoolyard of Bastion elementary in Salmon Arm on Nov. 21, 2008. He was shot three times — twice in the back and once in the back of the head.

The man standing trial was 16 at the time of Myers’ death and is now 24. He cannot be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

His ex-girlfriend, also charged with first-degree murder, was 17 at the time and is now 25.

She also cannot be named and is slated to stand trial in November.

The day for three Grade 12 students began with a home-economics class in their first block of the morning, the only class the two boys and one girl shared at Salmon Arm secondary.

The three, all friends, decided to skip school for the rest of the day and walk to one of their parents’ homes.

Chatting in the basement, while the girlfriend of one of the buddies went outside for a smoke, one boy complained to the other that she was fooling around on him with an acquaintance. That acquaintance was Tyler Meyers, five years older than the two, someone they had both worked with in construction.

“He wanted him [Meyers] to be out of her life,” the friend of the accused male testified in a first-degree murder trial in B.C. Supreme Court Friday.

The accused male also recounted recently seeing his girlfriend in bed with Meyers.

The name of the 25-year-old man who testified in the murder trial is protected by a court-ordered publication ban, as is the identity of the accused male murderer and the accused female. All were 17 at the time of the killing.

A PLAN WAS HATCHED

The three left the house and headed to a local restaurant for lunch. They later smoked a marijuana cigarette behind Bastion elementary school, where a plan was hatched to solve the problem.

The man who testified told the court he agreed to let his buddy, the accused male, borrow his dad’s .22 Savage rifle. The accused female was to lure Myers to the schoolyard that evening and make an excuse to go into the bushes to urinate. The accused male would then have a clear shot.

“They were going to have a chance to take Tyler’s life,” the witness recounted in plain, unemotional terms to the 12-person jury.

Later that day, on Nov. 21, 2008, the witness testified the accused male “texted me and asked to borrow a gun.

“I said yes.”

“THEY SAID IT WAS DONE”

That evening, the witness said the accused male and the accused female came to the home, where he lived with his parents. He met the pair outside after spotting a car in the driveway.

“By that time, he [accused male] put the gun back in the RV and handed me a bag of pot . . . They said it was done . . . It was something along the lines that Tyler was dead,” the witness said.

Myers would be found dead with three gunshot wounds, including one to the back of his head.

The witness pleaded guilty in 2014 to being an accessory to murder after the fact. He received a two-year conditional sentence with no jail time. But Crown prosecutor Bill Hilderman noted to the jury that the facts to which the witness pleaded guilty did not include knowing a plan was hatched to kill Myers with the rifle he agreed to loan.

A SECRET

The witness testified after the murder the three came up with a story they agreed to tell police. All were interviewed by RCMP and said they didn’t know what happened to Meyers.

Afterward, “there was not a whole lot said about it,” the Crown witness testified.

“After a couple of weeks, we thought it was over and done with.”

The witness moved to Kamloops in the ensuing years, but the two boys, now young men, remained friends.

RCMP were suspicious of the accused male and his girlfriend, the accused female, however, and later obtained a search warrant for text messages. Four years after the murder, police used a Mr. Big undercover operation to extract a confession from the two accused.

The trial, which began this week, is scheduled to last a month and will continue Monday.