Kim Robinson in 2008, after he nabbed child killer Allan Schoenborn.

A trapper and hunter in the Nicola Valley testified in provincial court Friday that he was lawfully hunting cougar when he was stopped during a B.C. Conservation Office patrol.

Kim Robinson is charged under the Wildlife Act with hunting a bobcat without a licence and using dogs in the hunt. He is also charged with failing to properly mark his licence to hunt bear.

The Nicola Valley outdoorsman gained national fame in 2008 when he tracked down Allan Schoenborn following a 10-day manhunt. Schoenborn killed his three children, but was later found not criminally responsible.

A conservation officer testified earlier in the trial that Robinson told him his hounds were “on a bobcat.” Robinson did not have a licence to hunt bobcat. The Crown has argued dogs cannot be used in the act of trapping.

Robinson, who runs three traplines, testified in his own defence that he was hunting mountain lion (cougar) on Jan. 3, 2015, and had a licence to do so.

“I said [to the conservation officer], ‘I’m lion hunting and trapping.’ His answer to me was, ‘You’re sure you’re not on bobcat?’ I said, ‘So what if I am?’ There’s so much ambiguity in the law.'”

While Robinson and another witness for the defence testified they were hunting cougar with the dogs, the lifelong hunter believes, nonetheless, he is legally able to trap bobcat using his dogs. The Crown asserts dogs can only be used in hunting, not on a trapline.

“Is it your belief you can trap with your hounds?” asked his lawyer Kevin Church.

Robinson said he has always believed he is within the law to do so, but it has not been tested in court.

“There has to be clear legislation,” he said.

Robinson frequently interrupted Crown prosecutor Catriona Elliott during cross-examination, prompting a warning from Judge Stella Frame to “can the attitude.

“I told you to answer questions, not ask them,” she said.

The trial in Kamloops provincial court will continue at a later date.

A high-ranking Lillooet police officer is slated to make his first court appearance Tuesday on allegations he stole two guns and grow-op equipment from an RCMP evidence locker.

Sgt. Darrell Robinson is facing eight charges — four each of breach of trust by transferring an exhibit and theft.

He is accused of stealing two firearms and two pieces of marijuana-growing equipment — a generator and growing nutrients — that had been seized as police exhibits.

It is believed some or all of the stolen exhibits had been ordered destroyed.

Police began investigating Robinson in February 2015, after an audit of the Lillooet detachment’s evidence lockup revealed improper processing and handling of exhibits.

Robinson, 51, has been suspended with pay. In addition to the criminal charges, he is also facing an RCMP internal investigation.

Lillooet is located 170 kilometres west of Kamloops.

The mother of a Salmon Arm man standing trial in Kamloops for a murder hung her head in the courtroom on Monday as jurors watched a video recording of him apologizing to a detective after his arrest and saying how much he loves his family.

Her son, now 24, is alleged to have shot a  romantic rival while a senior in high school.

His  identity is protected by a court-ordered publication ban because he was 16 at the time of the murder. His 25-year-old ex-girlfriend is also charged and due to stand trial in November. Similarly, she cannot be named because she was 17 at the time of the slaying.

Tyler Myers, 22, was shot three times — twice in the back and once in the back of the head — in a Salmon Arm schoolyard on Nov. 21, 2008.

His killing has been described in court as a love triangle turned deadly. Jurors have been told both Myers and the male accused were involved romantically with the female accused.

Crown prosecutor Bill Hilderman said the two accused hatched a plan to borrow a .22-calibre rifle from a friend and kill Myers.

Hilderman said the female accused lured Myers to the Bastion elementary schoolyard, where the male accused was hiding in a wooded area with the rifle. When he had a clear shot, Hilderman said, the male accused fired a bullet into Myers’ back.

Jurors were told the male accused then emerged from the wooded area and fired two more shots into Myers’ body, both at the direction of the female accused.

Both accused were interviewed by police in the days after Myers’ death and denied any involvement.

They became suspects three weeks later after police obtained a warrant allowing them to intercept text messages.

The investigation slowed, court heard, until the female accused became the target of an RCMP Mr. Big undercover operation in 2012. Jurors have listened to an audio recording of the male accused admitting his involvement in the murder to an undercover police officer posing as a gangster on the promise that his powerful criminal organization could clear him of any suspicion.

In court on Monday, jurors watched an interview conducted at the Salmon Arm RCMP detachment hours after his arrest on Nov. 5, 2012.

In the video, RCMP Sgt. Rob Burrett repeatedly told the male accused how “devastated” his parents were to learn he’d been charged with first-degree murder.

“I love them and I’m sorry,” the male accused told the detective on video. “I just don’t want them to think I’m a bad person.”

In the video, Burrett went on to describe his interactions with the accused male’s family.

The accused male’s mother, seated in the front row of the courtroom gallery, sat bent over with her head hanging down as the detective talked on video about a meeting he was going to have with the family.

On Friday, the friend who loaned the two accused his father’s rifle to kill Myers said the plan was hatched over lunch the day of the murder.

“They were going to have a chance to take Tyler’s life,” the witness, whose name is also protected by a publication ban, said in court.

The accused later returned the rifle and gave the witness a bag of pot, court heard.

The witness pleaded guilty in 2014 to being an accessory after the fact and was handed a two-year conditional sentence with no jail time.

The trial, which began last week, had been slated to last about a month, but the Crown is nearing the end of its witness list.

It is not known if the defence will call any evidence.

A Kamloops floor installer surveilled by online investigators with the RCMP’s integrated child-exploitation unit has pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography.

Benjamin Koop was sentenced in Kamloops provincial court.

Crown prosecutor Oliver Potestio said Koop’s IP address was flagged in April of 2015 by RCMP investigators working for the special unit. It was traced to a Kamloops address. Armed with a search warrant, police obtained Koop’s name from provider Shaw Communications.

RCMP raided his home in June of last year.

“In an interview [with RCMP],he ruled out any other uses and admitted to downloading child pornography,” Potestio said. “He reviewed them and deleted them later. He explained he’d done this for years.”

Police found a four files confirmed to be child pornography, while more than 100 file names that were deleted were “indicative” of child pornography,” Potestio said.

Potestio and defence lawyer Don Campbell made a joint submission asking for 90 days in jail and 18 months of probation for Koop, a submission agree to by Judge Roy Dickey.

Koop will also be listed on the national sex-offender registry and has restrictions on Internet usage.

Campbell said Koop’s sense of remorse is seen in his early guilty plea and admissions to police.

“Mr. Koop was extremely co-operative with police in a way that fortified the Crown’s case against him . . .” Campbell said. “He’s read every self-help book he could obtain to get himself on track to end the cycle.”

The ex-girlfriend of a Salmon Arm man standing trial for first-degree murder in relation to a high school love triangle turned deadly was painted in court Tuesday as “the mastermind” behind the 2008 murder plot.

Tyler Myers, 22, was shot to death in a Salmon Arm schoolyard on Nov. 21, 2008.

The 24-year-old man standing trial for his death cannot be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act because he was 16 when Myers was killed. The accused’s ex-girlfriend, now a 25-year-old woman, is also charged with first-degree murder and will stand trial later this year. She cannot be named because she was 17 when Myers died.

The accused were charged four years after the slaying, at the end of a months-long RCMP Mr. Big undercover operation that culminated in confessions from both suspects.

In B.C. Supreme Court in Kamloops on Tuesday, jurors watched more than two hours of a video recording taken the day after the male accused’s arrest in November 2012.

In the recording, RCMP Sgt. Rob Burrett convinces the male accused to come clean and explain how the murder plot unfolded.

During the interview, which took place inside a nondescript room at the Salmon Arm RCMP detachment, Burrett called the female accused “a cold-hearted bitch” who was trying to pin the murder on the male accused.

“She has issues,” the male accused replied.

“One-hundred per cent she has issues,” Burrett shot back. “But, if she had issues back in the day that caused you to do this, then we have to deal with it.”

The male accused started crying in the video, telling Burrett he hasn’t slept through the night since Myers was killed.

“Did he deserve to die?” Burrett asked.

“No one deserves to die,” the male accused replied.

“Why did something like this happen, then?” Burrett asked.

“Because of her,” said the male accused. “I was her bitch in every sense of the word.”

The male accused went on to tell Burrett that the female accused, who was dating both him and Myers at the time, told him Myers planned to attack the male accused’s family.

“She told me he was going to come to my house and beat the shit out of my whole family,” he said.

“Those were her exact words. I was scared.”

The male accused told Burrett he wanted to go to police, but the female accused told him she’d tried and been told there was nothing they could do.

“I just listened to her,” he said.

The friction stemmed from an altercation between Myers and the male accused at the female accused’s house 11 days before the murder, according to the video.

The male accused told Burrett he walked in on the female accused and Myers together in bed, then asked for a word with Myers.

He said Myers pushed him and he ran away.

Then, he said, the female accused starting to talk about removing Myers from the picture.

“She just said she wants to get rid of him,” the male accused told Burrett.

“I was just so stupidly, irrationally, illogically in love with her. I was 16 years old.

“I was scared, I was confused. I just felt like she was this absolute angel.”

On the day of the murder, the male accused said, he cut class with the female accused and a friend. Jurors heard that’s when the plan was hatched.

That evening, the male accused hid out with a borrowed rifle in a stand of trees on the schoolyard of Bastion elementary. The female accused, he said, lured Myers to the area to be shot.

“She called me and said, ‘Are you ready? We’re coming down,’” the male accused told Burrett, describing the female accused as “the mastermind.”

“I said, ‘Yup.’ I was shaking.”

The male accused, who told Burrett he had never shot a gun before killing Myers, said he shot his romantic rival once from his hideout in the trees before emerging and firing two more shots — both, he said, at the request of the female accused.

“I just shot,” he said. “I don’t know where it hit him. He was just standing there looking around.

“He was just on the ground and she said, ‘Shoot him in the head.’

“She looked at me and said, ‘You did good, babe,’ and gave me a kiss.”

Myers was struck with three bullets — two in his back and one in the back of his head.

The male accused went on to apologize on tape to the community of Salmon Arm and his parents, as well as Myers’ family. He also had a message for the female accused when asked by Burrett.

“F—k you,” he said.

“You don’t even deserve an answer. You’re not worth my time. I hope you get what you deserve.”

The Crown is expected to close its case later this week. It’s not yet known if defence lawyer Donna Turko will call any evidence.

The Crown wants a five-year prison sentence for a gender-transitioning Kamloops woman who used a fake handgun while trying to rob a mentally disabled man before breaking into two nearby homes and threatening the residents.

Sarah Chalifoux-Schneider pleaded guilty in B.C. Supreme Court to seven charges — three firearms offences, two counts of break-and-enter and one each of robbery and mischief — stemming from a violent incident that unfolded in North Kamloops last fall.

Court heard Chalifoux-Schneider and a male accomplice walked up to a mentally disabled 52-year-old man walking along Halston Avenue on Oct. 15, 2015.

Crown prosecutor Laura Drake said Chalifoux-Schneider pointed the fake handgun at the man and said, “What have you got for money?”

When he failed to turn over cash, and told them he had nothing but his cowboy hat, his Cheezies and his glasses, court heard, Chalifoux-Schneider began to beat him, knocking him to the ground in the middle of Halston Avenue and kicking him in the face.

“Because the incident took place in the middle of the street, it was witnessed by at least two people who called 911,” Drake said, noting one of those witnesses was an off-duty corrections officer who recognized Chalifoux-Schneider’s accomplice, James Anderson Jr.

The officer watched the pair enter a nearby apartment building on Kimberly Court.

Drake said the first apartment unit Chalifoux-Schneider entered was occupied by a sleeping family of six. The father woke up when he heard banging on his front door.

“He went to the front entrance and saw a woman walk into his house holding a handgun,” Drake said. “She pointed the gun at [him] and said she was here to collect.”

The man told Chalifoux-Schneider she had the wrong house, so she broke into another nearby apartment unit and pointed her fake gun at a resident when confronted.

Drake said the resident was able to wrestle the gun away from Chalifoux-Schneider and push her out of his home.

She fled, but not before smashing the window of a vehicle parked outside.

Chalifoux-Schneider was arrested a short time later. Police eventually determined the gun was made of plastic.

At an earlier hearing, Drake said the mentally disabled victim was more than shaken by the incident.

“He is quite a low-functioning individual and this event had a very severe impact on him,” she said at Chalifoux-Schneider’s bail hearing in December.

Drake asked for a sentence of five years behind bars, given the seriousness of the robbery and break-ins and

the fact the three firearms offences to which Chalifoux-Schneider pleaded guilty each carry a mandatory one-year minimum sentence,

Chalifoux-Schneider has a lengthy record and was on probation for an earlier break-and-enter conviction at the time of the Halston Avenue offences.

Defence lawyer Michelle Stanford pitched a prison term in the range of three to four years.

Stanford said Chalifoux-Schneider, who has been in custody since the offence, realized while behind bars she feels like a man, noting the “transitioning issues” might have played a role in the violent crime spree.

“She has never felt like she was a woman,” Stanford said. “She did not want to be a woman and preferred to be a man. She has finally began to address that and is going through the stages of transition.”

Chalifoux-Schneider apologized for her actions.

“Jail is the best thing that’s ever happened for me,” she said. “I’m truly, deeply sorry.”

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Dev Dley will deliver a sentence on Thursday morning.

RELATED

Accused in robbery of mentally disabled man will remain behind bars

A Salmon Arm man standing trial for first-degree murder for shooting to death a romantic rival in a schoolyard ambush almost eight years ago is telling his side of the story to a B.C. Supreme Court jury.

The 24-year-old took the witness stand in a Kamloops courtroom late in the day Wednesday to begin describing his role in the 2008 death of 22-year-old Tyler Myers.

Under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, the accused cannot be named publicly because he was 16 at the time of Myers’ death. His ex-girlfriend, who was 17 at the time, is also charged and cannot be named. Her trial is slated to begin in November.

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

The male accused has admitted he shot Myers, but claims to have been acting on the orders of the female accused.

“The defence actually agrees with almost everything the Crown will be arguing except for one thing — well, except for two things: Planning and deliberation as defined under Canadian law,” defence lawyer Talia Magder said in a brief opening statement to jurors on Wednesday.

“[The male accused] does not have to take the stand in this trial, but he does not want to hide behind procedural rules.”

Magder said the male accused will be sentenced for murder once the trial is complete, but told jurors it’s up to them to decide whether it’s first or second degree.

On the stand, the male accused described his childhood as a normal one. He said he played sports on school teams and took part in baseball, golf and biking outside of school.

He told jurors he worked in a fast-food restaurant while in high school and spent the summer working construction when he was 15 — working alongside Myers as a labourer in Invermere.

Court heard the male accused has no criminal record and had never been arrested before he was implicated in Myers’ murder. Both accused were arrested in November 2012, at the conclusion of a months-long RCMP Mr. Big undercover sting targeting the female accused.

“I first met [the female accused] in Grade 7,” he said. “We were friends then but not all that close.

“We stayed in brief contact for a number of years. She moved down to California for a year but, when she came back, that’s when we started to get quite close.”

The male accused said he and the female accused started dating in early 2008.

He said Myers entered the picture around the start of the school year in September 2008.

Over the next two months, the male accused said, he became suspicious that the female accused was involved in an affair with Myers, who he described as a tough low-level drug dealer.

“I always believed her when she said nothing was going on,” he said. “But there was a lot of contact.”

Eleven days before the murder, court heard, the male accused caught Myers in bed with the female accused. That led to an altercation on the driveway of the female accused’s house, jurors were told, that ended with the male accused running away.

After that, he said, the female accused started telling him Myers was out to get him.

“She was pressing the idea that he wanted to meet up with me,” he said.

“That’s really when she started pressing the idea that he was going to kill me, that he was going to come to my house and beat up my whole family.”

In her questioning of the male accused, defence lawyer Donna Turko referred to it as “The Tyler Problem” — the fact that talk about Myers’ alleged threats dominated much of the conversations between the two accused.

“She made a few comments then that it would be so much easier if he dropped dead, it would be so much easier if he disappeared — stuff like that,” the male accused said.

“I just dismissed the comments — like, no, that’s not happening. It was often. Maybe daily.”

In court on Thursday, Turko is expected to walk the male accused through the events of the day of the murder.

It is not known if the defence will call any other evidence.

Former Kamloops RCMP Const. Randi Love was charged in May with trafficking cocaine. The three counts stem from allegations she sold the drug in June 2015, while still employed by the national police force.
KTW file photo

A former high-profile Kamloops Mountie facing three counts of trafficking cocaine did not appear in person Thursday as lawyers had her first court date adjourned to next month.

Charges were laid against Randi Love in May. According to court documents, the allegations date back to three dates in June 2015, when she was still employed as an RCMP constable.

The adjournment granted on Thursday is to allow Love’s lawyer to review disclosure.

Police launched an investigation into the 40-year-old last August. In October, she submitted her resignation papers to the national police force. At the time she is alleged to have trafficked in cocaine, KTW has learned, Love was on medical leave from the RCMP after suffering an injury on the job.

Love made headlines in 2013 when she testified at the fraud trial of her former boyfriend, RCMP Const. Trent Wessner, who was convicted of bilking Costco out of $400 and subsequently left policing.

In 2008, Love was the media-relations officer at the Kamloops RCMP detachment. She is due back in Kamloops provincial court on July 21.

A desire to “man up” and impress his girlfriend led a Grade 12 teenager to pull the trigger on a rifle in a Salmon Arm schoolyard nearly eight years ago, leaving his romantic rival dead.

The accused, now a 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 22-year-old Tyler Myers. He cannot be named because he was 16 when Myers was killed.

His girlfriend at the time, now a 25-year-old woman, is also charged with first-degree murder and similarly cannot be named publicly. She is slated to stand trial in November.

Court has heard the female accused was involved romantically with both Myers and the male accused at the time of the killing. Both accused were arrested in November 2012 at the conclusion of a months-long RCMP Mr. Big undercover operation.

The male accused has admitted to shooting Myers three times — twice in the back and once in the back of the head. Defence lawyer Talia Magder has told jurors it is up to them to decide whether his conviction should be for first- or second-degree murder.

The jury has watched video recordings of police interviews between the male accused and an RCMP detective in which the female accused is painted as “the mastermind” behind the plot to kill Myers.

In court on Thursday, the male accused testified the female accused had been “pressing the idea” of shooting Myers the night before the murder. The male accused said he brushed it off.

Defence lawyer Donna Turko showed jurors text messages the female accused sent to another man the night before the murder, asking him for a gun.

“I want a piece,” the female accused said to the unnamed third party.

“A piece of him or a piece?” he replied.

“No, like a gat,” the female accused wrote back, using a slang term for firearm.

The next morning, the male accused said, he approached the female accused with an idea to remove Myers, a small-time drug dealer, from the picture without killing him.

“I got the idea that we could stage a phoney drug deal with Tyler and scare him with a gun — scare him out of town,” he said. “She wasn’t very keen on it. She didn’t think it was a very good idea.”

Later in the day, court heard, the two accused and a friend visited Bastion elementary’s schoolyard while cutting class.

“I don’t really know how it came up,” the male accused said. “Somehow we started talking about how this location would work just fine [for a staged drug deal gone wrong]. Then she said it would also work just to shoot him.”

The male accused said he asked a friend to borrow one of his father’s rifles to scare Myers. He said that was his intent when he showed up at the school later that evening.

The female accused, meanwhile, had lured Myers to the schoolyard with the promise of a meeting with the male accused to resolve friction between the two.

The male accused said he hid in a forested area and planned to fire a bullet in Myers’ direction when the female accused momentarily left his side.

“I never agreed to shoot or kill him,” he said. “I had no intention to shoot or kill him at that point.”

In court, the male accused said he was nervous while hiding in the wooded area — shaking, heart pounding and feeling sick.

Before Myers and the female accused arrived, he said, he lied and texted the female accused to say there were people in the area, hoping she would call it off. She did not reply, jurors heard.

“I didn’t want her to think I was backing out,” the male accused testified. “I wanted to man up, so to speak. We had the intention, she would bring him over by the school and I’d be waiting there and I’d try to jump out and shoot at him or scare him. That was the plan.”

The male accused said his nerves increased when Myers and the female accused arrived.

“He’s just standing there looking around,” he said. “I’m shaking terribly. I’m feeling sick. I certainly didn’t think I could say anything or confront him. But it was now or never, so to speak. I aimed the gun toward him, I looked down and I just fired.”

The male accused said he hadn’t intended to hit Myers with his bullet, but he saw the victim put his hand on his side and lean forward.

“I immediately thought I’d hit him,” he said. “We were both kind of deer in the headlights — just frozen.”

Myers then tried to run away, the male accused said, at which time he ran at him and fired another round, missing.

“He took a few more strides and then sort of fell,” he said. “[The female accused] came over and said, ‘Tyler, are you OK?’ There was no response. He was just laying there.”

The male accused said he remembers standing over Myers in shock.

“She comes around and says, ‘Do him again — do him in the head,'” the male accused testified. “It was automatic. I fired again. She came around and kissed me and said, ‘You did good, babe.'”

The male accused said he fired two shots while Myers was on the ground — one in his back and one in the back of his head.

Turko then asked why he followed his girlfriend’s orders to shoot Myers again.

“It was automatic,” he said. “She just said it and it was an automatic response.”

At the end of her questioning, Turko asked the male accused who was to blame for Myers’ death.

“Do you blame [the female accused] for the shooting of Tyler Myers?” she asked.

“No, I blame myself for not walking away from the situation,” the male accused replied. “I take full responsibility for shooting and killing Tyler. That was my mistake. I wish I could go back in time, I really do. Nobody deserves to die. Nobody’s perfect, but there’s no scenario where anyone deserves to die.”

The male accused’s trial is expected to wrap up next week.

A patient at South Hills psychiatric centre who was angry with a nurse for encouraging him to take his medications retaliated by pouring boiling water on her, a Crown prosecutor said in court Thursday.

Vishal Tiwari pleaded guilty to aggravated assault in connection to the attack on the nurse in February this year and was sentenced by Judge Chris Cleaveley to 15 months in prison, followed by two years of probation.

The Crown was seeking a jail sentence between 18 months and two years for the assault that left the registered nurse with first- and second-degree burns.

Prosecutor Camille Cook said the day began when the nurse saw Tiwari at breakfast and asked him to come to the dispensary later to take his medication. Tiwari has variously been diagnosed with autism, schizo-affective disorder and attention deficit hyperactive disorder. An hour later, the nurse brought medication to Tiwari, encouraging him to attend the dispensary the next time.

The two chatted and Tiwari voluntarily took the medication. Later on, however, Tiwari approached the nurse and said he didn’t appreciate her actions, Cook said.

“He said he wasn’t an idiot and had a choice to refuse medication if he wanted.”

A half-hour later, Tiwari approached the nurse from behind and dumped a two-litre pitcher of hot water on her. Another nurse who witnessed the surprise attack said Tiwari immediately put on headphones and sat at a nearby table “’with a stone-cold face’” as his victim attempted to tear off her scalding-hot clothing.

The nurse spent three days in hospital with severe burns to her shoulder, chest and hand. She only recently returned to work on a limited basis.

“She just didn’t understand what happened in this situation,” Cook said, noting Dr. Paul Dagg, a psychiatrist who interviewed Tiwari, determined he had mild psychosis at the time and understood the difference between right and wrong.

Tiwari was found to show no remorse and did not display any pattern before the premeditated assault on the nurse. Due to these factors, the psychiatrist deemed Tiwari to be a high risk.

Defence lawyer Michelle Stanford argued for a six-month sentence.

“Family and staff at South Hills have called this uncharacteristic of him,” Stanford said, arguing his mental-health issues are behind the attack and should lessen his penalty.

In a lengthy and rambling speech, Tiwari said he believes his mental illness “is a thing of the past” after he weaned himself off medication.

A woman who started a bizarre and violent crime spree by assaulting a man with mental disabilities and finished with two home invasions was sentenced yesterday to four years in prison.

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Dev Dley called the attack on a pedestrian at a street crossing in North Kamloops “unprovoked on an unsuspecting victim.

“He’s been traumatized and continues to be fearful,” Dley said.

Sarah Chalifoux-Schneider punched and kicked the low-functioning 53-year old man and stole his glasses.

All the events happened on Oct. 14, 2015.

She was carrying an imitation firearm, something that attracts a minimum one-year sentence when used in the commission of an indictable offence.

Chalifoux-Schneider pleaded guilty to robbery, three counts of using an imitation firearm in the commission of an offence and two counts of break and enter.

From there, the 28-year-old woman entered a home on Kimberley Crescent clutching the fake gun.

She said she was there to collect money and was looking for a man named Ken. She entered the neighbouring property, which was also occupied, and made similar demands.

Dley said one of those homeowners also continues to be haunted by the attack.

The Crown asked for a five-year prison sentence, while defence lawyer Michelle Stanford argued for three to four years.

Dley noted the minimum sentence he could levy is three years, one year each for each count of using an imitation firearm during a crime.

Chalifoux-Schneider racked up a criminal record in the past three years, including six breaches of court-ordered conditions, break and enter and using a forged document

She was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactive disorder as a child and has mental health and drug abuse issues.

With extra credit, Chalifoux-Schneider has served the equivalent of a year in custody, reducing her actual sentence to slightly more than three years in prison.

She will be housed at the Fraser Valley Institution for Women.

RELATED

Woman who beat mentally disabled man in robbery attempt to be sentenced Thursday

Accused in robbery of mentally disabled man will remain behind bars

Three men facing a raft of charges in relation to an alleged high-speed chase that resulted in the seizure of firearms last month near Barriere have agreed to stay behind bars for the time being.

Mark Aaron Pauls, Andrew James Shreenan and William Randolph Hill appeared briefly in Kamloops provincial court on Monday.

Pauls and Shreenan are facing charges including two counts of possession of a stolen firearm, possessing a prohibited weapon and possession of a stolen vehicle.

Hill is accused of failing to stop for police.

According to court documents, police attempted to pull over a Volkswagen Golf near Little Fort on May 4. The vehicle did not stop for police.

When investigators were finally able to track it down, the documents state, they found two shotguns.

Police allege the vehicle was stolen.

None of the three accused have sought bail and, in court on Monday, they had their next appearance set for June 27.

The trio has elected to be tried by judge alone in B.C. Supreme Court.

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

Leon Reinbrecht

B.C.’s highest court has granted bail to the man who in 2010 drove his speedboat into a houseboat while out for a joyride on Shuswap Lake, leaving one person dead and a number of others injured.

Leon Reinbrecht was granted bail in the B.C. Court of Appeal following a hearing in Vancouver on Friday. He has been in custody since June 2, when a B.C. Supreme Court judge sentenced him to spend three years behind bars in a federal prison.

The 54-year-old was convicted on one count each of criminal negligence causing death and criminal negligence causing bodily harm following a trial last year. His lawyers filed an appeal of the conviction four days after he was sentenced.

“It’s very frustrating that the legal system is like this,” said Lorraine Tomalty, a sister of Ken Brown, the houseboat pilot who died in the collision.

“It’s for the guilty. And the poor people who were on the houseboat — they’re still suffering.”

Tomalty said the fact Reinbrecht is appealing his conviction, and the fact he will soon be out of custody pending that appeal, flies in the face of defence claims he feels remorse for his actions.

“If he would have just owned up to it six years ago, this would be over,” she said. “He just can’t take responsibility for what he’s done. How long can somebody tie up the system? It’s ridiculous.”

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 dark, court heard, and witnesses said they saw Reinbrecht’s boat pulling donuts and U-turns while speeding close to shore.

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.

Tomalty said she will continue to speak out for as long as Reinbrecht fights his conviction.

“We don’t want him to get away with it,” she said.

A date for Reinbrecht’s appeal has not yet been set.

RELATED

Guilty verdict in houseboat trial

Charter challenge in fatal houseboat crash convictions

Driver of boat in fatal crash has convictions upheld despite lengthy path to trial

Reinbrecht trial: Three-year prison sentence in fatal boat crash

Appeal filed in fatal boat crash conviction

After a 10-month delay, the trial of an Ashcroft man accused of beating his uncle to death with a shovel two years ago resumed briefly Friday in a Kamloops courtroom.

Shane Gyoba, 30, is charged with second-degree murder in connection to the June 2, 2014, death of his uncle, Ed Gyoba.

Last August, after near-constant outbursts in his week-long trial, Gyoba’s hearing was halted so he could  undergo a psychiatric evaluation. He was found fit to stand trial.

Lawyers on Friday made closing arguments in Gyoba’s case. Crown prosecutor Neil Flanagan said he thinks Gyoba should be found not criminally responsible by way of a mental disorder if convicted.

In order to be found not criminally responsible by way of a mental disorder, one must first be convicted.

“There is evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that the accused had the necessary mental element for you to find him guilty,” Flanagan said.

“Mr. Gyoba is guilty of murder. There is no reason to find that Mr. Gyoba did not know that striking him in the head three times, three very strong blows, would cause the death of his uncle. There was clear intention to cause the death of Ed Gyoba.”

However, Flanagan added, there is ample evidence Gyoba was in the midst of a psychiatric episode at the time of the attack.

Flanagan said the Crown theory is that Gyoba was motivated by anger after learning that he was being kicked out of the home of his aunt and uncle.

Court has heard police were called to the Ashcroft home Gyoba shared with his aunt and uncle at about 9:30 a.m. on the day of the murder.

A neighbour who testified last summer said the drama began to unfold nearly an hour earlier. Gil Anderson said he went outside for a cigarette and heard a shouting match.

“I lit the smoke and that’s when I heard the sounds of arguing coming from I don’t know where,” he said.

“It was louder than regular talking. They sounded angry. I couldn’t hear what words were spoken.”

Anderson said he walked around the side of his house to the driveway and saw, through bushes, two men in the front yard of the Gyoba home.

“I couldn’t quite see faces, but I saw two silhouettes through the bushes,” he said. “I saw the silhouette on the left attack the one on the right. The one on the right tried to defend itself and the one on the left pursued until the one on the right fell down.”

Anderson said he then saw the person on the left pick something up from the ground and start swinging.

“I could see the long handle and I wasn’t quite sure until I heard the shovel, the first strike,” he said.

“I heard kind of a muffled, garbled voice of an elderly person that kind of groaned and said, ‘You son of a bitch.’ After that, it was two more — I didn’t hear any words, but I could hear the shovel hit two more times. It was a reverberating metal sound and a loud thump.”

Anderson said he was shaken by what he witnessed and, at first, convinced himself it hadn’t been real.

“I stood there for a second,” he said. “I couldn’t believe. I was shaky. I couldn’t understand what I’d seen or heard at that point — and it was minutes before I had to walk my daughter to school.”

Flanagan said Gyoba stuffed his uncle’s mouth with dirt after killing him.

Defence lawyer Don Campbell’s argument was brief.

“I have very clear instructions from my client,” he said. “That is not to pursue a psychiatric defence.”

In the past, Campbell said, Gyoba has refused to take medication and opposed a diagnosis of bipolar disorder.

“He is fit,” Campbell said. “He himself is not putting his psychiatric state at issue and I am therefore barred from doing that.”

Like he did during his trial, Gyoba frequently interrupted lawyers on Friday with outbursts from the prisoner’s box. Lawyers often had to raise their voice to speak over Gyoba’s ranting.

If Gyoba is found not criminally responsible, he will be sent to a secure psychiatric facility in the Lower Mainland for medical treatment.

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Dev Dley is expected to deliver a decision on Thursday, June 23. If Dley finds Gyoba guilty, Flanagan said he will apply for a not criminally responsible designation.

A Kamloops woman who claims she was raped at gunpoint in a North Shore park more than six years ago told a jury her attacker threatened to kill her if she went to police.

Taylor James Matchett, 28, is standing trial on one count of sexual assault with a firearm in B.C. Supreme Court.

His alleged victim, now a 32-year-old stay-at-home mom, was the first Crown witness called when the trial began in front of an eight-woman, four-man jury on Monday morning. Her name is protected by a court-ordered publication ban.

The complainant said she was walking along Tranquille Road on Nov. 11, 2009, when a blue car stopped near her. She said she approached the vehicle and asked the driver if he was looking for company. Jurors heard she agreed to perform oral sex on the man in exchange for $40 and suggested he drive to McArthur Island.

Once there, court heard, the attacker pulled a gun on the complainant.

“He said he had a little surprise for me,” the complainant said. “In shock, I grabbed the barrel and said,’This has got to be a joke.’

“He said no. If I didn’t bite, he wouldn’t kill me.”

The woman told jurors she performed oral sex on the attacker with a gun to her head for about 10 minutes. She said he then ordered her to remove her pants and put her face in a pile of dirt while he raped her from behind. After the attack, the complainant said, she ran to a nearby home and banged on the door. She called 911 and police arrived a short time later.

Defence lawyer Sheldon Tate has admitted Matchett’s DNA was found on the victim’s body.

The trial is expected to conclude this week.

A 55-year-old man facing charges in connection to a fatal hit and run in Magna Bay earlier this year did not show up in person for his first court appearance on Monday.

Instead, a lawyer asked that Raymond Edward Swann’s matters be adjourned until next month.

Swann is alleged to have struck Brian Watson’s motorcycle from behind on Squilax-Anglemont Road on April 3. Watson, 60, died as a result of the collision.

About a dozen of Watson’s family members crowded into a small courtroom at the Kamloops Law Courts, hoping to catch a glimpse of the man accused in his death.

Swann, who is facing one count each of criminal negligence causing death and failure to remain at the scene of an accident, is not in custody.

He is due back in court on Aug. 18.

RELATED

‘An innocent person killed’: Wife of SD73 worker killed in hit and run awaits suspect’s first court appearance

Elwin Wheeler holds a photograph of his daughter Deanne, who was 26 when she was killed by ex-boyfriend Christopher Butler on Dec. 30, 2014.
KTW file photo

Deanne Wheeler’s father told a B.C. Supreme Court hearing her murderer took a young life and left behind a family crushed with grief.

Christopher Butler, 42, has pleaded guilty to murdering his ex-girlfriend in his Cherry Avenue apartment on Dec. 20, 2014. During a sentencing hearing Monday, Crown asked for a minimum of 12 to 14 years before parole eligibility, while defence argued for 10 to 12 years before parole in what is a life sentence for second-degree murder.

“She bought her friends birthday presents, Christmas presents, cared for people, had an unmistakable laughter, loved life, liked her hot chocolate, tea, yogurt, movies, loved music, loved her cat, loved her friends, loved life and wouldn’t hurt anyone,” her father, Elwin, told the court. “We miss her closeness, her love, her smile.”

Elwin faced the loss of his daughter alone, court heard. Her mother was hospitalized for 18 months, unable to cope with Deanne’s death. Deanne was the couple’s only child.

Butler’s appearances in court have been frequently accompanied by bizarre ramblings. After killing Wheeler, 26, he told police she was “a demon.” He admitted to strangling her with an electrical cord, hitting her in the head with a rock and stabbing her seven times.

Butler invited her to his apartment and she brought him a coffee.

“When it entered my apartment, I set down the coffee it had brought,” Butler told police, referring to Deanne as a demon. “We went forward into the living room. It turned around and said, ‘You will no longer call me Satan,’ and its eyes went huge and black . . . I feared for my life and said, ‘Die, demon, die.’”

Speaking to the court, breaking up at times, Elwin said: “If anyone is a demon, it’s Chris Butler. If I hate anyone in this world, it’s Chris Butler — that man right there.”

Butler then interjected in a flat tone, saying, “I’d like to apologize for my actions.”

Crown prosecutor Alexandra Janse highlighted Butler’s jealous behaviour and stalking in the weeks before Wheeler’s death, including threats to kill her new boyfriend.

Butler was referred in 2015 by the court for an assessment to determine whether he was not criminally responsible by reason of a mental disorder. A psychiatrist found that, while he has bipolar disorder and narcissistic and anti-social personality disorders, he appreciated his actions caused the death of a person.

Defence lawyer Jay Michi highlighted Butler’s mental problems, saying his mental health rapidly decayed in December 2014. He had been under treatment by professionals, but had mixed success staying on medication and away from drugs and alcohol. He has a long and violent criminal record, but did manage a stable life for 10 years in Ontario, where he ran a business and was a father to two children.

Justice Keith Bracken is scheduled to render his decision July 25.

A man standing trial for allegedly raping a former prostitute at gunpoint on McArthur Island in 2009 told a B.C. Supreme Court jury on Wednesday that he was the victim of an attempted blackmail.

Taylor James Matchett took the stand in his own defence, refuting a harrowing tale told by the alleged victim earlier this week about being forced to perform multiple sex acts with a gun pointed at her head.

Matchett is charged with sexual assault with a firearm.

Now 28, Matchett said he dropped his then-girlfriend off at work on Nov. 11, 2009, before driving up and down Tranquille Road in hopes of hiring a prostitute.

“I parked on a side road where I’d observed a street walker to be and she approached the vehicle,” he said. “She asked if I was looking for a date. I said yes.”

Matchett said he then drove the woman, whose name is protected by a court-ordered publication ban, to a remote parking lot on McArthur Island. He told jurors they had agreed on a specific sex act for $60 — an amount he said he paid beforehand.

Matchett said the agreed upon sex act took place. Afterwards, he said, he noticed his condom had broken and informed the woman.

“She said she didn’t have any STDs, but I was going to have to pay her $500,” he said. “I asked why and she said so she wouldn’t go to the police and say I raped her.

“I said not a f—ing chance, excuse my language.”

Matchett said he threw the woman’s belongings out of his vehicle and left McArthur Island.

In court, Matchett said he saw the woman twice in the following weeks — once at a North Shore coffee shop and again when he picked her up for sex 10 days after the initial incident.

“There was no acknowledgement of the situation from several days before,” he said. “I assumed the issue had been laid to rest — the night was done and over with.”

Court has previously heard the woman fled McArthur Island on foot, using a neighbour’s phone to call 911. A forensic examination found Matchett’s DNA on her body.

Matchett said he moved to Edmonton from Kamloops in 2012, when he began living with a common-law partner.

Court heard he returned home from work one day last November and was greeted at home by Edmonton police executing a warrant out of Kamloops.

The case against Matchett is expected to be in the hands of the jury by the end of the week.

The lawyer representing a man accused of raping a former Kamloops prostitute at gunpoint more than six years ago told a jury on Thursday to discount the woman’s story, in part because she was a longtime crack-cocaine addict.

Taylor James Matchett’s trial on a charge of sexual assault with a firearm is winding down in B.C. Supreme Court. Jurors are expected to begin deliberations by Friday.

The woman told the jury she agreed to perform a sex act on Matchett, now 28, for $40. She said he drove her to a secluded parking lot on McArthur Island, pulled out a pistol and raped her at gunpoint.

Matchett, testifying in his own defence, said he paid the woman $60 for a different sex act. He said once the act was complete, he told her his condom had broken and she became upset.

Matchett said the woman demanded $500 from him and said she would go to police if he did not pay up. He said he threw her belongings out of his car and left her in the parking lot.

Court heard Matchett wasn’t charged until November 2015. He was arrested on a Kamloops warrant in Edmonton, where he had been living since 2012.

In his closing statement to the jury, defence lawyer Sheldon Tate characterized the complainant, who cannot be named under a court-ordered publication ban, as a liar.

Tate urged jurors not to ignore the fact the woman’s story changed multiple times between the Nov. 11, 2009, incident and her testimony in court earlier this week.

“The other thing that can’t be ignored in this case is that this lady was addicted to crack for a long time,” Tate said. “It explains why she went to that area, it explains why she wanted $500. It may have been an artless and unsophisticated blackmail, but it’s exactly the type of thing you would expect from [the woman] in those circumstances.”

Tate also pointed to missing evidence. Police never found the broken condom and the woman’s belongings only turned up a week later when someone turned them in to Mounties.

“These are items that were overlooked by the police search because their net was not cast wide enough,” Tate said.

Initially, the woman did not tell police she was a prostitute. She told investigators Matchett had offered her a ride home and instead drove to McArthur Island and pulled a gun.

She later changed her story and admitted she had been working as a prostitute.

“If you make up a story, it’s difficult to keep your facts straight,” Tate said. “She isn’t telling the truth. She hasn’t told the truth. You shouldn’t believe her and you should acquit Mr. Matchett.”

In her closing statement, Crown prosecutor Catriona Elliott said the woman had good reason to be hesitant about admitting she was a prostitute.

“She told us she grew up in Kamloops,” Elliott said. “She didn’t want her family to know she was prostituting. She also said she knew police don’t believe prostitutes and they don’t bother — that was her word, bother — with complaints from prostitutes.”

Elliott said Matchett’s story “defies common sense” and described him as “cocky and flippant” on the witness stand.

“You’d have to believe she maintained a lie, she maintained that ineffective blackmail scheme, for six-and-a-half years and then put herself through this ordeal,” Elliott said.

“It’s the Crown’s submission that you can and should disbelieve the evidence of Mr. Matchett and you can and should, beyond a reasonable doubt, convict the accused of the offence he’s been charged with.”

Sharon Noble, proposed as a representative plaintiff in a class-action suit against BC Hydro, protests outside the Union of B.C. Municipalities convention in Vancouver in 2012.
Black Press file photo

The B.C. Supreme Court has dismissed an application by anti-smart meter activists to certify a class-action suit against BC Hydro’s use of the wireless meters.

It’s the latest defeat for opponents of wireless meters, whose claims of health hazards have also been rejected by the B.C. Utilities Commission and the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal.

In her June 12 decision, Justice Elaine Adair agreed with BC Hydro expert Dr. Benjamin Cotts that it would be impossible to assess a “common issue” of thousands of customers’ exposure to radio frequency exposure because of endless variations in distance and wall materials separating people from meters.

Cotts also noted that, in addition to radio frequency emissions from radio stations, cellphones, baby monitors, TV and weather radar, natural sources including lightning, other humans and the Earth itself make the assessment of meter emissions impractical.

BC Hydro said in a statement it is pleased by the decision on a wireless electricity system that has “realized $100 million in benefits in the first three years of the program, including reductions in electricity theft.”

The proposed representative plaintiffs in the class-action application included Nomi Davis, who operates a yoga and healing centre business in her home, and Sharon Noble, a long-time protester against wireless meters.