A jury sent out to decide the fate of a Kelowna man accused of killing a 19-year-woman more than two decades ago decided his guilt in less than a day.

The jury found Neil Snelson guilty of manslaughter just after 9 p.m. on Tuesday. It started its deliberations Tuesday morning.

“If I’d have been a little weaker I’d have fallen over,” said Terry Cusworth, the victim’s father, following the verdict.

His daughter, Jennifer, was found was found dead in a ditch the day after attending a Kelowna party in 1993. Along with his wife, Jean, he has attended months of trial, voire dire and retrial.

Terry said Jean was not able to be at the courthouse due to a medical condition. She attended much of the trial. The couple now lives in Pritchard.

Jennifer’s father called Jean immediately after the verdict.

“We got it,” he told her.

Terry told reporters he was unsure what verdict the jury would come back with.

This is the second time Snelson has been found guilty. The earlier verdict was successfully appealed and a new trial ordered after the appeal court found the Crown could not enter as evidence a question police put to him about whether he was ready to plead innocent or guilty.

In the first trial, the Crown said an innocent man would not have had pause to consider that question.

But, even without that evidence, the Crown presented enough of a case for the jury to come back with a conviction.

Prosecutor Iain Currie declined to reveal the Crown’s sentencing position. A date for sentencing has not been set.

Terry said he is not seeking a specific sentence for Snelson.

“What Mr. Snelson gets — I believe in spiritual justice,” he said. “I think he’ll get his spiritual justice later.”

Terry said he is thankful to Kelowna RCMP detectives and media who never forgot about his daughter’s death.

Cusworth was strangled and suffered skull fractures from being struck in the head seven to eight times, a forensic pathologist testified during the trial. The Crown tendered evidence showing Snelson’s DNA matched semen found on Cusworth’s body.

Court heard Cusworth and Snelson had been at the same house party the day before her body was found.

A pickup truck similar to Snelson’s was also seen by a witness near where Cusworth’s body was found. Snelson was questioned by police in 1993, but wasn’t charged until detectives revisited the investigation in 2009.

The post Jury finds Snelson guilty of manslaughter — again appeared first on Kamloops This Week.

Oneil Parchment filed lawsuits while in custody at Kamloops Regional Correctional Centre. (KTW FILE PHOTO)

A convicted drug dealer who has launched a series of criminal and civil proceedings across the province — including from a Kamloops jail cell — has been declared a vexatious litigant.

The label means Oneil Parchment cannot file civil proceedings without permission of the court.

The vexatious litigant order is intended to protect citizens from an endless blizzard of litigation.

The order means he can no longer proceed with 14 lawsuits underway without special permission. He is allowed to continue one appeal claim in Chilliwack.

In Parchment’s case, his lawsuits — none of them successful — included:

• suing, while an inmate at KRCC, the province from an alleged failure to protect him from a jailhouse faction of the  Klu Klux Klan. Two men — one aboriginal and one Arabic, he claimed — assaulted him at the behest of the group. Parchment is black.

• related claims at B.C. Human Rights Tribunal

• other lawsuits relating to treatment while in jail, filed both at the provincial court and Supreme Court levels.

• allegations that amount to medical malpractice regarding diet, botched procedures and denial to access of skin cream while in jail.

Despite the vexatious litigant finding, however, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Christopher Grauer declined to forbid Parchment from filing private criminal proceedings.

“It is in this area that Mr. Parchment has proven himself to be the most vexatious,” Grauer said in his ruling.

Those criminal allegations include allegations against police, court staff, correctional officers and Crown officials alleging fabrication of evidence.

Grauer said both judges and the Crown have the ability to stop improper proceedings in criminal court.

“I am not persuaded that it would be appropriate to impose an additional lawyer of gatekeeping, even assuming I have the ability to do so,” he said.

Grauer left the door open for the Crown to reapply to stop Parchment’s swearing of those private informations. But he said Parchment should be assigned an amicus curiae (a lawyer acting as a friend of the court) to assist given the legal complexity.

The post Lawsuit-filing prisoner barred from suing appeared first on Kamloops This Week.

A Kamloops lawyer is trying to get a lifelong farmer in Barriere reunited with two of his beloved animals.

Defence lawyer Jay Michi said yesterday SPCA officials executed a warrant on a farm operated by Paul Sabyan on June 2, seizing 31 piglets, 18 sows, one boar and one bay stallion.

“They were concerned he’s too old to husband them at 77 [years],” Michi said.

The provincial SPCA’s chief prevention and enforcement officer Marcie Moriarty confirmed the seizure by officials from the agency.

“They met the definition of distress under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act and they were seized. The vast majority have been surrendered.”

The animals were placed in foster care and none were destroyed due to health problems, she said.

Sabyan pleaded guilty and was sentenced in March under the Livestock Act to allowing his animals to roam on neighbours’ property and a nearby highway.

During sentencing the Crown outlined the frustration of neighbours and danger to motorists from Sabyan’s pigs — which ranged in size from 200 and 900 pounds —  repeatedly escaping an enclosure.

Sabyan also pleaded guilty under the Motor Vehicle Act to allowing domestic animals on the highway.

Judge Len Marchand called it during sentencing “more than a nuisance.”

“There was significant damage to neighbours’ property and risks to motorists on the Yellowhead Highway.”

As part of his one-year term of probation, Sabyan was required to provide proof of his fence repair and evidence of inspections.

Michi said Sabyan has abided by the court order and the SPCA action is unrelated to his probation. He will apply for return of the two animals through an SPCA review process.

Moriarty confirmed that review is underway. If unsuccessful it can be appealed to the B.C. Farm Industry Review Board and ultimately the courts.

Michi said the aging farmer’s desire is simple.

“He just wants his horse back and one pet pig.”

The post Lawyer working to reunite farmer with pig, horse appeared first on Kamloops This Week.

A 36-year-old man accused of shooting a Kamloops Mountie has pleaded not guilty and elected to have his case heard before a judge and jury in B.C. Supreme Court.

Kenneth Knutson is charged with offences that include attempted murder stemming from the Dec. 3 shooting of RCMP Cpl. Jean-Rene Michaud. He was arraigned Thursday in provincial court.

A date will be set later for a preliminary hearing.

Michaud was shot while conducting a traffic stop on a vehicle in Batchelor Heights. Knutson was arrested following an exhaustive manhunt that lasted more than 12 hours.

He is a convicted killer with a lengthy criminal history and ties to Lower Mainland drug gangs.

Michaud is recovering from his injuries at home and made an appearance recently on a video for Royal Inland Hospital Foundation.

The post Accused in shooting of Mountie pleads not guilty appeared first on Kamloops This Week.

While the Crown wants to put a Kamloops man behind bars for being an “employee” in a dial-a-dope operation, his lawyer says jail would be a set back.

Sentencing submissions got underway today in Kamloops Provincial Court after Christopher Anderson pleaded guilty to trafficking cocaine.

Anderson is one of eight who were charged in connection to a drug ring busted in 2012 as part of an RCMP undercover investigation.

The investigation included 20 different purchases of powdered cocaine from April 18 to Oct. 9, 2012. Charges were laid in July 2013.

Crown prosecutor John Walker told provincial court judge Len Marchand Anderson was an “employee” in the operation.

Known by the name “Billy,” he answered calls and met buyers at various locations throughout the city — including behind Paramount Theatre and in front of Carlos O’Bryans pub — collecting money in exchange for cocaine.

Anderson, who was a university student at the time, admitted to selling the drug to undercover police officers on six occasions in Kamloops between April 24 and June 19, 2012.

In his final interaction with police on June 19, 2012, Anderson sold an undercover officer half an ounce of cocaine for $1,000 outside Milestones restaurant.

Over the course of the investigation, Anderson sold 22.5 grams of cocaine to undercover police officers, amounting to $1,661, Walker said.

“All of these transactions were under surveillance by other officers,” Walker told the court, which included Anderson’s family.

In his submissions, Walker asked Marchand to consider the social implications of making a “serious” drug easily accessible and Anderson’s conscious choice of making illegal activity a “way of life.”

“It can be seen as an easy way out, tax-free profits,” Walker said, noting Anderson met police in a BMW on at least one occasion — a vehicle he owned.

Anderson was 21 at the time of the offence, pleaded guilty and has no previous criminal record.

Walker recommended Marchand impose a 12- to 15-month jail sentence.

But defence lawyer Jordan Watt said the most significant thing to consider was that by the time the investigation was completed, Anderson was already out of the ring.

Watt said Anderson purchased the BMW before getting involved in drug trafficking and, having removed himself from criminal activity, is at “zero risk” of reoffending and is not a danger to the public.

“We cannot lose sight of that,” he said. “The focus of this is to keep Mr. Anderson on this path.”

But Walker suggested Anderson may have been tipped off about the investigation.

“This was a summer job?” Walker said. “I don’t know.”

Watt recommended a 15-month conditional sentence order.

Tyrell MacDougall, also charged in connection to the investigation, was recently handed a conditional sentence order for his part at the employee level.

Richard Crawford and Steven Lloyd Currie are expected to have been at the top of the operation and await trial.

Police said at the time the cocaine network had ties to the United Nations gang, though that allegation has not since been argued in court.

The post Crown wants dial-a-dope dealer jailed appeared first on Kamloops This Week.

A community support worker who stripped a young man and shaved his body hair after he passed out in his home was in a “trusted role” and should serve four years jail, a Crown prosecutor argued Friday.

However, defence lawyer Richard Kaiser said Michael Hume should serve 90 days jail, on weekends, along with three years of probation.

The 48-year-old was convicted after trial earlier this year of sexual assault, unlawful confinement and uttering threats in connection to an incident in Lytton in August 2013.

“Mr. Hume is at a low risk to reoffend,” Kaiser said, referring to a psychological report.

Hume arrived in the small Fraser Canyon community 10 years ago, working first as a youth and recreation counsellor and later assisting with restorative justice and helping young Lytton First Nation members in trouble with the law. The victim testified that included him.

Hume was also active with the B.C. Ambassador program for youth and became deeply ingrained in Lytton after marrying the band administrator, who has since died.

“It placed him in a trust role . . . in a job with court and social issues,” Balison said.

Kaiser presented 66 letters of support. But Balison argued the court should not consider those letters of support because it was that very reputation that allowed Hume to be trusted by his victim.

“He was essentially flaunting his power over a disadvantaged young man,” Balison said, adding Hume continues to deny his actions and remains remorseless.

During the trial, Hume claimed the victim made up the bizarre story after he would not hand over $200, in what Hume characterized as an attempted extortion.

However, the jury sided with the Crown, who said Hume’s story could not be believed.

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

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

During the trial, Hume denied shaving the complainant, though he did acknowledge police seized hair from his vacuum cleaner and agreed with the Crown it was not animal hair.

Hume still lives in Lytton.

Lytton First Nation Chief Janet Webster wrote a victim impact statement, calling Hume’s actions “a crime against the entire community, not just one individual.”

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Sheri Donegan is expected to give her sentencing decision on June 26.

The post Crown seeks four years in jail for support worker who shaved young man appeared first on Kamloops This Week.

A Kamloops “people pleaser” who got roped into working as a dial-a-dope drug dealer has avoided prison.

Christopher Anderson pleaded guilty to drug-trafficking charges after he was arrested in 2013 when police took down a large-scale cocaine ring.

Court heard Anderson worked as a low-level “employee” of the operation in 2012, when he was 20 years old.

Known by the name “Billy,” he answered calls and met buyers at various locations throughout the city — including downtown behind Paramount Theatre and in front of Carlos O’Bryans pub — collecting money in exchange for cocaine.

Anderson, who was a university student at the time, admitted to selling the drug to undercover police officers on six occasions in Kamloops between April 24 and June 19, 2012.

In his final interaction with police on June 19, 2012, Anderson sold an undercover officer half an ounce of cocaine for $1,000 outside Milestones restaurant.

Over the course of the investigation, Anderson sold 22.5 grams of cocaine to undercover police officers, amounting to $1,661, federal Crown prosecutor John Walker said.

At the time, Anderson was a business student at Douglas College. He sold drugs when he returned to Kamloops during breaks in his schooling.

In handing down his sentence on Friday, Kamloops provincial court Judge Len Marchand described Anderson as “a people pleaser” and “a follower” who was unaware of the harm his drug-trafficking was causing.

“I accept that his colossal mistake of becoming involved in the drug trade was out of character,” he said.

Marchand placed Anderson on a 15-month conditional-sentence order, the first nine months of which will be served under house arrest.

For the six months that follow, Anderson will be bound by a 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. curfew.

Anderson will only be allowed to possess one cellphone for the duration of his sentence and will be bound by a 10-year weapons ban. He will also have to submit a sample of his DNA to a national criminal database.

Marchand also ordered Anderson to pay an “elevated” victim-crime surcharge of $2,000.

Tyrell MacDougall, also charged in connection to the investigation, was recently handed a conditional sentence order for his part at the employee level.

Richard Crawford and Steven Lloyd Currie are believed to have been near the top of the operation and await trial. Jean Claude Auger, the operation’s ringleader, was recently sent to jail for four years.

Police said at the time the cocaine network had ties to the United Nations gang, though that allegation has not since been argued in court.

The post Dial-a-dope drug dealer gets conditional sentence, no prison time appeared first on Kamloops This Week.

Deanne Wheeler on her 18th birthday. The Kamloops woman was 26 when she was killed in December.

A B.C. Supreme court justice will determine whether a 41-year-old Kamloops man can plead guilty and be sentenced for murdering a woman who once lived with him.

Aug. 5 to Aug. 7 has been set aside in B.C. Supreme Court for a sentencing hearing for Christopher Butler.

He has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in connection to the death of Deanne Wheeler, 26, whose body was found in a North Shore apartment on Dec. 30.

Butler has declined a lawyer and is representing himself in court.

In April, he was found mentally fit to stand trial.

During earlier court appearances, Butler has blurted out incoherent statements about God and religion and become fixated on the coat of arms in the courtroom.

The options before the B.C. Supreme Court justice during the sentencing hearing include accepting the guilty plea and handing down a sentence or declining the plea and instead ordering a trial.

Butler and Wheeler had been involved in a romantic relationship in the past, but were not together at the time of her death.

The post Justice will decide if guilty plea in death will stand appeared first on Kamloops This Week.

The city was correct in ruling out a cheaper bid to construct the Aberdeen fire hall when the company failed to meet its requirements, a B.C. Supreme Court justice has ruled.

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

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

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

Council approved that recommendation.

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

“True never completed its sealed bid; its fax completing that which should have been in its sealed bid was not an acceptable revision,” Hyslop said.

Hyslop said that fax completion of the bid allowed True an advantage in last-minute negotiations with subcontractors.

“By not completing the bid appendices, True avoided the risk of performing an unprofitable contract incapable of acceptance,” she ruled.

“Whether True intended this or not need not be proved.

“Rather, this is the effect of not completing the bid documents and then attempting to complete the bid documents by fax.”

Hyslop said the city must ensure bids “are made from the position of a fair playing field.”

The post Supreme Court rules in favour of City of Kamloops in firehall contract appeared first on Kamloops This Week.

Brandi Bloor as seen in a mugshot.

A convicted fraud artist who bilked a senior to obtain bigger breasts and a tummy tuck has been sentenced to five more months in jail by a provincial court judge.

Brandie Bloor, 39, pleaded guilty to fraud over $5,000 and identity theft after falsifying documents and using false information to obtain more than $17,000 worth of cosmetic surgery at Kamloops Surgical Centre.

She received breast implants, liposuction and a tummy tuck.

On Tuesday, Judge Len Marchand sentenced Bloor to nine months in jail, along with two years probation. She has already served the equivalent of about four months in jail awaiting sentencing. Bloor has also been ordered to pay back the company from which she obtained a loan.

Bloor’s arrest resulted in her 13-year-old son being taken from her custody by the Ministry of Children and Family Development.

“I hope the time away from your son is the wake-up call you need,” Marchand told her during sentencing.

Bloor is a serial offender whose record include three convictions for fraud, 13 convictions for forgery, two convictions for impersonation and seven convictions for theft of identity.

Marchand noted Bloor was abused as a child, saying “no one should have to experience the things Ms. Bloor experienced when she grew up.”

Brandi Bloor’s new breasts, as seen on her Facebook page.

The Crown had asked for a six- to nine-month jail sentence, while the defence had argued for four to six months in prison.

Police launched an investigation in February 2014 after an 83-year-old Kamloops man received a letter from a loan company claiming he was behind on payments after borrowing money for cosmetic surgeries — a loan on which he was listed as a co-signor with Bloor.

She made only one payment on the loan.

The victim did not know Bloor, but the loan agreement included the senior as a co-signor and listed him as Bloor’s grandfather.

Police questioned Bloor about the loan and were convinced by her story. They questioned her again, however, after obtaining before and after photos from the surgical centre. Those included a rose tattoo on her stomach.

Bloor then claimed she had been working as an escort and the 83-year-old man was one of her clients who agreed to co-sign the loan.

Investigators disproved that claim by matching the elderly man’s driver’s licence on the loan application to one that had been reported stolen in 2010. The man denied ever having met Bloor or any escort.

Marchand also noted the nature of the crime means Bloor cannot give back the fruits of her crime. But, she will be bound by a restitution order to the loan company for the approximately $17,000 it lost in her fraud.

The post Scamming senior for bigger breasts nets Kamloops woman nine months in jail and a $17,000 bill appeared first on Kamloops This Week.

A former paramedic and small-engine mechanic who lost everything to drug use will spend more time in jail.

Adam Duhamel, 34, pleaded guilty in B.C. Supreme Court this week to two counts of drug trafficking.

Defence lawyer Jeremy Knight read a letter to B.C. Supreme Court Justice Ian Meiklem from Duhamel’s father, outlining his happy family life as a child stained by repeated concussions and bullying.

As a paramedic, his father said, Duhamel suffered post-traumatic stress disorder after he was unable to revive a dying infant.

A physician diagnosed him with a number of mental-health problems.

Duhamel’s drug use and mental-health problems resulted in him losing a home in Williams Lake, his wife and two children, the lawyer said.

Crown prosecutor Anthony Varesi argued for nine months jail, noting Duhamel was on probation from an unrelated crime at the time he sold $170 worth of methamphetamine to undercover operators in October 2013.

“Clearly, it was an ongoing dial-a-dope operation,” Varesi said.

But, Knight said, there is no proof Duhamel was an employee in a dial-a-dope operation.

The Crown did not tender phone records showing other transactions, he noted.

Instead, he said, Duhamel was a “people pleaser” who was helping the buyer and friends he knew who sold drugs.

The defence argued for the 75 days Duhamel has served in jail since being arrested for failure to attend an earlier court date, along with a suspended sentence and probation.

But, Meiklem said, the appearance of a dial-a-dope operation is too obvious.

He added Duhamel needed a plan to go immediately into drug treatment in order to be let out of jail.

Meiklem ordered a six-month jail sentence, minus the 75 days at Kamloops Regional Correctional Centre Duhamel has spent waiting for sentencing.

He will also serve nine months probation.

The arrest was part of an RCMP crackdown in 2013 on drug sales.

The post Six months in jail for former paramedic appeared first on Kamloops This Week.

A Lytton community support worker who stripped and shaved his unconscious victim “broke this young man,” a B.C. Supreme Court justice said Friday.

Justice Sheri Donegan sentenced Michael Hume, 48, to three years in jail for sexual assault and unlawful confinement in a bizarre incident that split the Fraser Canyon First Nations community between sympathy for the respected support worker and organizer and his victim, a young adult whose name cannot be published due to a court order.

“Mr. Hume’s conduct that day broke this young man,” Donegan said.

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 not to tell anyone. Hume earlier threatened him not to leave.

During the trial, Hume denied shaving the complainant, though he did acknowledge police seized hair from his vacuum cleaner and agreed with Crown it was not animal hair. He continues to deny the offence.

Defence lawyer Richard Kaiser outlined the work Hume did in the community, including palliative, justice and programs for youth. That included working as a key organizer for the B.C. Ambassador program.

Crown prosecutor Chris Balison argued Hume’s community work could not be used as an argument for a lighter sentence because it was that very reputation that allowed Hume to exploit his victim, who trusted him.

Donegan agreed, saying the victim “trusted Mr. Hume and his trust was betrayed in a most egregious way.”

The Crown argued for a four-year jail sentence, while the defence asked for 90 days jail, to be served on weekends, followed by a lengthy probation.

Donegan also noted Lytton First Nation chief Janet Webster’s victim-impact statement. Webster said Hume’s actions, which followed years of community service, caused deep scars.

“‘Trust takes years to build and minutes to destroy,'” she said, reading from the letter. “‘This has broken our community’s trust.'”

Hume, who is not of First Nations ancestry, grew up in Merritt and went to school at Cariboo College for a social-work program.

He was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis prior to his offence and dealt with the death of his wife, a former band administrator. Hume was also caring for his ailing father. The defence argued all those setbacks contributed to his stress and may have triggered the behaviour.

The post Convicted shaver gets three years in prison appeared first on Kamloops This Week.

FOR MOBILE VERSION, CLICK HERE

The post The Real Mr Big: Part 1 appeared first on Kamloops This Week.

A provincial court judge has allowed a Barriere resident to keep three horses after being convicted of causing an animal to be in distress.

Jody Huffman pleaded guilty to the charge under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act. A veterinarian ordered two of his sick Peruvian Paso horses to be immediately shot because their condition was so dire and they couldn’t be handled.

Judge Stella Frame agreed on Tuesday with a submission by Crown prosecutor Alex Janse for a $1,500 fine and ban on owning animals outside the three replacement horses Huffman now has in his possession.

Quoting from a veterinarian’s report, Janse said the two mares’ hooves were without proper care, infected and the horses were tangled with a weed “to such a degree I have never seen before.”

There was also suggestion the animals were underfed.

Defence lawyer John Hogg argued his client was in the midst of deep withdrawals from a decade-long addiction to prescribed opiate painkillers stemming from an accident in 2003.

The SPCA began investigation late in 2013 and obtained a search warrant to enter Huffman’s property and inspect the animals.

The attending veterinarian ordered Huffman to shoot the two animals. They could not be given lethal injection because they were never saddle-broken and could not be handled.

Both suffered from infections and problems from inadequate hoof care that causes extreme pain.

The veterinarian acting for the SPCA gave the lone stallion treatment and Huffman cut the weed, burdock, from its main and tail. It was put down the next year, however, due to its advanced age.

Frame did question whether Huffman should be allowed to keep the horses.

“The amount of burdock is so thick it looks like they have a hive of bees on them,” she said.

But, the sentencing judge said she would agree with Huffman keeping the three new horses — but no other animals for the next five years — based on a care plan.

It will allow inspection at any time by SPCA staff and Huffman must have veterinary and farrier records available.

Hogg said the three horses were dropped on Huffman in 2000 by a friend. The trainer who specializes in the breeds kept them, but never worked with them.

Hogg entered extensive medical-file information showing Huffman’s battle with opiate addiction.

When the SPCA swooped in, Huffman was in the midst of kicking the habit and was in deep withdrawal, suffering the worst symptoms.

“He was feeding them, but not looking after them . . .” Hogg said.

“He was a mess.”

The post Fined, but he keeps horses appeared first on Kamloops This Week.

FOR MOBILE VERSION, CLICK HERE

The post The Real Mr Big: Part 2 appeared first on Kamloops This Week.

A 28-year-old man stopped in the middle of stealing a pickup full of Christmas presents has been sentenced to 60 days in jail.

Mark Aaron Schulz pleaded guilty in Kamloops provincial court to possession of stolen property and possession of a stolen credit card.

His criminal record includes driving and drug offences. It includes stealing an RCMP bait car with golf clubs visible.

Crown prosecutor Adrienne Murphy said Schulz’s most recent crimes started in December, when a truck was stolen in Chase early in the month,

Two weeks later, Murphy said, a Rayleigh family was in the midst of unloading Christmas presents from their truck in their garage when they noticed a man inside.

“He he was attempting to steal the vehicle,” Murphy said.

Murphy said Schulz bolted, got in the white Dodge truck that he had stolen in Chase and drove away. The family gave chase. Schulz was blocked from leaving the subdivision by a passing train but managed to elude his pursuers.

An hour later, RCMP pulled over a motorist who said he was coming to Rayleigh to pick up a friend police believed to be Schulz. The stolen truck from Chase was later recovered in an old barn RCMP found Schulz’s fingerprints inside the truck.

In April of this year, police identified Schulz in video from a gas station where a stolen credit card was used.

Defence lawyer Sheldon Tate said Schulz is a skidder operator and driver “who is a hard and talented worker” who has the support of his family.

“His poison is methamphetamine,” Schulz said. “It’s something he wants to deal with.”

Judge Stephen Harrison sentenced Schulz to 60 days in jail and a year of probation. One of the terms of probation is he must not occupy the driver’s seat of any vehicle and not be in a motor vehicle unless the registered owner is present.

The post Two months behind bars for the Grinch of Rayleigh appeared first on Kamloops This Week.

Midway through publication of a three-part series, a B.C. Supreme Court judge has imposed a ban on publication that prevents Kamloops This Week from reporting key facts in the RCMP case against accused murderer Peter Beckett.

Crown prosecutor Sarah Firestone made an application to ban any publication of Crown disclosure — the detailed package of material, including police investigation reports, statements and interviews, provided to the accused — prior to Beckett’s trial before a judge and jury.

A date has not been set for the jury portion of the trial in B.C. Supreme Court, but voir dire hearings to determine whether certain evidence can be admitted are set for September and October.

Citing the need to protect potential jurors from information and Beckett’s right to a fair trial, Firestone said the material belongs to the Crown and cannot be used for anything other than by prosecution and defence for purposes of the trial.

“This is a jury trial,” Firestone said.

“Kamloops This Week is the only remaining newspaper in this community and this is a cover-page story.

“The Crown wants to avoid a trial in the court of public opinion before Mr. Beckett is tried by a jury of his peers.

“We’re not asking for anyone’s freedom of expression to be denied, but to be delayed.”

Justice Ian Meiklem ordered the ban and the return of Crown materials not in Beckett’s possession.

Firestone also questioned whether Beckett’s version of the events surrounding his criminal charges should be allowed to be made public, as they were in Thursday’s edition of KTW.

Defence lawyer Don Campbell, however, argued that it’s important for Beckett to get his side of the story into the community.

“There are 351 articles available if you just punch his name into Google,” he said.

“The overwhelming majority of those have been released from some source, but basically from an RCMP perspective.

“What’s out there right now is an absolutely scathing and one-sided condemnation of Mr. Beckett without any semblance of fairness or balance.

“His position has never been fairly placed in front of the public.”

KTW obtained Crown disclosure outlining the investigation of Beckett, accused of the first-degree murder of his wife, Laura Letts, as well as conspiracy to kill five Crown witnesses.

The ban, issued on June 30, prevents the newspaper from publishing those facts prior to conclusion of the trial.

The newspaper’s lawyer, David Sutherland, argued successfully that the ban should not include pre-trial conferences and other matters not directly part of Beckett’s trial.

An edited version of Part 3 of the series will be published in Friday’s KTW.

The post Crown obtains injunction to halt KTW story appeared first on Kamloops This Week.

The Crown is asking for a Chase woman to repay about $5,000 after she pleaded guilty yesterday to defrauding the Ministry of Social Development.

Mary Kuch pleaded guilty in B.C. Supreme Court to fraud between March 2010 and May 2012, when she collected income assistance. She agreed to plea to the lesser crime after originally being charged with fraud over $5,000. The plea bargain between Crown and defence came immediately before what was intended to be a two-day trial.

Prosecutor Frank Caputo said the Crown will ask for a restitution order to the province of about $5,000 as part of the sentencing hearing.

Lawyers will argue the range of sentencing at a later date, during which details of the fraud will be heard.

Defence lawyer Don Campbell said he will argue for a discharge for Kuch, who agrees she must repay amounts illegally obtained from the ministry.

The Crown is expected to ask for a conditional sentence order and lengthy probation for Kuch.

The post Welfare fraudster to repay $5,000 appeared first on Kamloops This Week.

FOR MOBILE VERSION, CLICK HERE

The post The Real Mr Big: Part 3 appeared first on Kamloops This Week.

A 27-year-old man who killed his newfound friend in a drunken rage will serve the same 12-year sentence he was handed following his first trial in 2011.

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Dev Dley has sentenced Cory Bird this week.

Earlier this year, a jury found Bird guilty of second-degree murder for the second time.

The 12-year sentence is the minimum Bird must serve in federal prison before he is eligible for parole. That date will come in 2020 since Bird was arrested and jailed following the August 2008 death of Albert Michell in Lytton.

After the first trial in 2011, Bird was given a life sentence without chance of parole for 12 years. During this week’s sentencing hearing, the Crown asked for a range of 12 to 15 years before parole eligibility, while the defence argued for 10 years.

A number of psychological reports were entered for the hearing. Some described post-traumatic stress disorder-like symptoms based on Bird’s removal from his First Nations home at the age of two and placement with a Fraser Valley farm family. He will return to that family when he gets out of jail, said defence lawyer Sheldon Tate.

Bird also suffers from personality disorders and was addicted to alcohol and marijuana before the murder in Michell’s apartment.

A psychiatrist determined he is at a moderate to high risk to reoffend violently.

Dley argued that protection of privacy is paramount as is condemnation of Bird’s actions.

“This was a brutal, savage and senseless killing of a victim who showed kindness to Mr. Bird,” Dley said.

The defence unsuccessfully argued during trial that Bird was provoked into stabbing Michell, a resident of the Siska Indian Band reserve, 73 times when he awoke to find himself being sexually assaulted by the older man.

It was Bird’s second trial after the B.C. Court of Appeal ordered a new trial, finding the original judge should not have accepted Crown evidence that Bird was an experienced drinker.

Drunkenness can be used under the law to reduce a murder charge to manslaughter.

However, the jury rejected manslaughter and the argument that Bird acted in self-defence to fend off a sexual assault by Michell.

Dley said he found Bird’s most truthful answers were to police in interviews rather than in his testimony at trial.

Dley ruled Bird did not awake naked to find Michell with his head in his lap. Instead, he sided with Bird’s statements to police that when he awoke, Michell was watching pornography on his computer. Michell sat beside Bird, who removed his own shorts. Bird grabbed a small, folding knife that Michell had on him — a knife the older man was not brandishing in an aggressive manner — and stabbed Michell in the throat.

Dley said a fight then ensued.

“It appears Mr. Bird was overwhelmingly physically superior,” Dley said.

When the folding knife broke, Dley said Bird went to the kitchen to get a steak knife to continue stabbing a then-helpless Michell.

In police interviews, Bird could not explain why he killed Michell, whom he had earlier met while hitchhiking and with whom he was staying for more than a week.

Dley said Bird killed the man he called his friend several times in police interviews “without an apparent motive and without any plausible explanation.”

The post Second trial results in identical 12-year sentence for stabbing death in Lytton appeared first on Kamloops This Week.