A 12-person B.C. Supreme Court jury has begun deliberations to determine whether a 28-year-old man raped a former Kamloops prostitute at gunpoint in a North Shore parking lot more than six years ago.

Now that the jury tasked with deciding Taylor Matchett’s fate is out, KTW can publish details about the investigation that led to his arrest — information that wasn’t presented to jurors at trial.

Matchett was 22 on Nov. 11, 2009, when he is alleged to have solicited a 25-year-old Tranquille Road prostitute for sex. The Crown alleges Matchett then pulled a gun on the woman in a McArthur Island parking lot and raped her over a 30-minute period.

According to Matchett, he paid her $60 for a sex act. After it was complete, he said, the woman attempted to extort him for $500, threatening to tell police she had been raped if he did not comply.

Matchett said he left the woman in the parking lot and went home.

Police recovered DNA evidence from the woman’s body, but could not find a match.

Court heard Matchett moved to Edmonton in 2012. Last year, after he had been ordered to submit a sample of his DNA to a national criminal database following a conviction for break-and-enter in Alberta, investigators matched the Kamloops DNA sample to Matchett.

He was arrested on Nov. 26 in Edmonton and transported to Kamloops. He’s been in custody at Kamloops Regional Correctional Centre since then.

In 2014, Matchett was charged with a string of break-and-enters in the Edmonton area.

Check kamloopsthisweek.com for updates on the jury’s deliberations.

UPDATE: At 2 p.m. on Friday, four hours into deliberations, a juror asked to be excused for what B.C. Supreme Court Justice Dev Dley said were “unusual” reasons.

“He is being told that he is too loud and his conduct is intimidating,” the judge said, referencing a conversation he’d had about the situation with a deputy sheriff.

“He has been removed from the jury room and the jury has been told to stop deliberating.”

The juror was brought into court and Dley told him he was free to go.

“I’ve been that way all my life,” the juror said in a loud voice in court. “I had someone make a comment.”

Jury deliberations resumed a short time later with 11 jurors — three men and eight women.

A Merritt-area farmer accused of drunkenly driving a tractor off the road and into his friend’s house on Thursday will spend the foreseeable future in jail.

Charles Toodlican, 67, is facing a raft of charges — including dangerous driving, impaired driving and mischief — stemming from the bizarre incident alleged to have unfolded on a rural highway in the Lower Nicola.

Court heard Toodlican had been drinking wine at a friend’s house at about noon on Thursday. Seven hours later, the female friend told police, his tractor showed up on her property.

“She said Mr. Toodlican drove a big blue tractor and crashed through the fence on her property line,” Crown prosecutor Frank Caputo said.

According to police, the tractor left the road on Highway 8, crashed through the gate of Toodlican’s friend, hit a shed and then collided with her house. Caputo said damage is estimated at $4,000.

The friend called police, court heard, and investigators paid a visit to Toodlican’s farm.

“The police noted a tractor with the ignition key still in it and the hood warm to the touch,” Caputo said.

Toodlican is bound by a 10-year driving prohibition, so he is also facing a charge of driving a motor vehicle while disqualified. Court heard he has a lengthy record, including a 1989 conviction for impaired driving causing death.

Kamloops provincial court Judge Chris Cleaveley denied Toodlican’s application for bail.

“Mr. Toodlican poses, in my view, a substantial risk to the public,” Cleaveley said.

Toodlican became agitated in court after learning he would not be released.

“What about my animals?” he said. “I’ll just have to let them die, I guess.”

Toodlican is due back in court on July 21.

It took a B.C. Supreme Court jury 10 hours of deliberation on Friday to find a man accused of raping a former Kamloops prostitute at gunpoint guilty of the lesser included charge of sexual assault — a verdict Taylor Matchett will appeal.

The 28-year-old stood trial this week on one count of sexual assault with a firearm. The allegations against Matchett date back more than six years.

On Nov. 11, 2009, a Kamloops prostitute called police to say she had been raped by a man pointing a gun at her head. Investigators collected suspect DNA from her body, but could not find a match in a national criminal database.

That changed last fall, after Matchett was convicted of an unrelated crime in Alberta and ordered to surrender a sample of his DNA. He was arrested last November on a Canada-wide warrant by police in Edmonton, where he had moved three years earlier.

Matchett’s trial was a he-said, she-said. The former sex worker, whose name is protected by a court-ordered publication ban, told court Matchett pulled a gun on her after soliciting her for a sex act. She said he raped her at gunpoint over a 30-minute period in a secluded parking lot on McArthur Island.

The woman admitted in court to having initially lied to police. When she first reported the rape, she told investigators she was not a sex worker and said the suspect had offered her a ride home.

Matchett admitted to jurors that he hired the woman to perform a sex act, but denied sexually assaulting her. He said she attempted to extort him for $500 after he told her his condom had broken.

Twelve jurors heard the week-long trial, but the verdict was reached by 11. One juror was excused on Friday afternoon, four hours into deliberations, after informing a deputy sheriff that he felt he was too loud and intimidating to allow the jury to come to a proper verdict.

After the verdict, which came down just after 8 p.m. on Friday, defence lawyer Sheldon Tate told KTW Matchett will appeal. Tate stated earlier in court that there should be no lesser included charge offered to jurors given the facts as described by the woman.

Matchett is due back in court on Monday to set a date for sentencing.

The Supreme Court of Canada has declined to hear the appeal of a 54-year-old man whose reckless driving caused the death of two people on MacKenzie Avenue in Kamloops six years ago.

Lawyers for Wayne Fedan sought to take the case to the country’s highest court after the B.C. Court of Appeal ruled against them.

But the Supreme Court of Canada determined it will not hear it, meaning Fedan will serve out his sentence.

Fedan was convicted in September 2014 of dangerous driving causing death in connection to the crash that killed 20-year-old Brittany Plotnikoff and 38-year-old Kenneth Craigdaillie on MacKenzie Avenue in North Kamloops.

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

He was sentenced to three years in prison and handed a three-year driving ban to begin following his sentence for causing the March 20, 2010, crash.

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

Both the B.C. Supreme Court and B.C. Court of Appeal rejected arguments that police required a search warrant before accessing data in the vehicle’s black box.

Fedan’s sentence will end in October next year.

Lawyers Micah Rankin and Anthony Varesi argued Canada’s highest court should have considered the appeal based on what they called “an issue of national importance,” including four factors:

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

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

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

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

Kristopher Teichrieb as he appears on the couchsurfing.com website.

A father of three facing a charge of attempted murder in connection to the baseball-bat beating of an 18-year-old high school student walked into a Kamloops courtroom with a big smile on his face on Monday, waving at a group of friends and family seated in the gallery.

Kristopher Teichrieb has been in custody since he was arrested in the early-morning hours of June 19 after Jessie Simpson was beaten into a coma near Teichrieb’s Brocklehurst home.

Teichrieb’s bail hearing began on Monday and is expected to wrap up later this week. The evidence presented at the hearing is protected by a court-ordered ban on publication.

The 39-year-old wore a red jail-issue sweatsuit at the hearing, through which he sat silently, leaned forward and looked at the ground in the prisoner’s box with his elbows resting on his knees.

Teichrieb had eight supporters in the courtroom gallery. Three of them had to be excused from the hearing after Kamloops provincial court Judge Stephen Harrison made an order excluding any potential witnesses at trial.

Teichrieb is accused of beating Simpson with a baseball bat after finding the teen near or on his property. Simpson’s friends and family have said he was celebrating high-school graduation with friends on June 18 and may have been trying to find a group of friends when he was beaten.

Jessie Simpson

Simpson has been on life support since the incident.

Defence lawyer Jeremy Jensen has suggested the charge against Teichrieb could be upgraded to murder if Simpson succumbs to his injuries.

Teichrieb was arrested just after 5 a.m. on Father’s Day after police were called to a reported altercation in the area of Holt Street and Clifford Avenue. Simpson’s friends and family have said he was beaten with a baseball bat after being confronted by Teichrieb.

Police initially said Teichrieb had confronted someone in the driveway of his Clifford Avenue home.

At a candlelight vigil on June 26, Simpson’s aunt described his condition as “grave” and said it had not changed since he was admitted to Royal Inland Hospital.

Police have said Simpson has not been able to verbalize anything to investigators. It is unclear if Mounties know why Simpson was on Teichrieb’s property, if he indeed was.

The altercation took place on Holt Street. Teichrieb’s home is on nearby Clifford Avenue.

Teichrieb is a father of three with no criminal record and the owner of at least two construction firms. Simpson lives in Savona and was graduating from South Kamloops secondary this year.

A sentencing hearing for a man convicted of confining and beating his mother-in-law in a dispute over money ended abruptly Monday when be began screaming abuse at his estranged former family.

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Ian Josephson ordered an amicus curiae (friend of the court) be appointed to represent Rudolph Atzenberger for sentencing.

“You don’t know what you’re doing,” Josephson said.

Following that order and while Josephson was walking out of the courtroom, an agitated Atzenberger turned to his estranged ex-wife’s family and began yelling and pointing at them as a sheriff intervened.

“You ugly, vicious people!” he yelled repeatedly as the Crown prosecutor hurriedly emptied the courtroom.

In court, Atzenberger referred to himself as a “good, honest man.”

“You’re a good man who did a very bad thing,” interjected the sentencing judge.

In March, a jury convicted the 57-year-old of forcible entry, break-and-enter, assault causing bodily harm and uttering threats. The Crown is asking for a two- to three-year prison term for the electrical contractor.

For two days at the beginning of the trial, Susan Denison testified Atzenberger entered her home while she was asleep. Her former son-in-law tore off her covers and grabbed her by the hair, pushing and pulling her. Over the next several hours, she said, Atzenberger sat directly across from her, grilling her about a series of family and financial questions. He hit her with his gloved hands each time he heard an answer he did not like from the 75-year-old woman. Atzenberger then forced her to sign a document absolving him of debts.

The accused man represented himself at the trial. He testified he went to Denison’s home to iron out old differences and attempted to calm her and protect himself when she grew angry and violent. Atzenberger said he tried to pour cold water on her and she slipped several times in the shower.

The senior B.C. Supreme Court justice told Atzenberger “the evidence you offered approached the absurd.”

Before the sentencing hearing, Atzeberger presented the court with hundreds of pages of material, much of it testimony from a civil trial involving his former in-laws. He continually argued with Josephson, telling him the jury didn’t hear the real story.

“I don’t know where you’ve been,” Josephson told him. “You’ve turned yourself into a complete victim. The jury completely rejected your version.”

Before an earlier scheduled sentencing hearing Atzenberger attempted to convince the judge to declare a mistrial.

Atzenberger represented himself during the trial, but a court-ordered lawyer conducted cross-examination of Denison. Now a court-ordered lawyer will speak on his behalf and prepare for sentencing.

Crown prosecutor Iain Currie said he is recommending a jail sentence between two and three years. Atzenberger told Josephson he wants a conditional discharge.

Despite a plea for house arrest, a Kamloops man who claims to have been the victim of excessive force at the hands of a prison guard was back behind bars this weekend.

Michael Walsh was sentenced last month to serve 14 days on weekends at Kamloops Regional Correctional Centre. The 46-year-old was in Kamloops provincial court on Friday, asking a judge to change his sentence to house arrest or probation.

“The guards used excessive force to take me into segregation when I said something about a meal,” he said, claiming he had his face “smashed” by a correctional officer.

“I don’t have a problem serving my punishment, but I have a problem putting my life in jeopardy,” Walsh said.

Kamloops provincial court Judge Chris Cleaveley said his hands were tied. The minimum sentence for two driving while prohibited convictions within a year is 14 days in jail.

The Crown wants a B.C. Supreme Court judge to keep a Kamloops hunter accused of poaching a record-setting sheep in the Yukon from appealing the decision of a lower court last year that said he was guilty — sort of.

In October of 2015, Kamloops provincial court Judge Stella Frame issued a ruling stating the Crown had proven beyond a reasonable doubt its case against Abe Dougan, who stood trial on 12 poaching charges. Frame followed that ruling immediately with another decision, issuing judicial stays of proceedings on all counts — effectively tossing the charges and allowing Dougan to walk out of the courtroom without sanction.

The charges were thrown out, Frame said, because the Crown took too long to bring them to trial. Dougan’s record-setting Dall sheep was killed in 1999. He was charged in 2012 and the trial didn’t begin until the summer of 2014.

The Crown initially filed to appeal Frame’s decision to stay the charges, which was followed by a cross-appeal from Dougan. The Crown withdrew its appeal in March, but Dougan’s appeal is still on the books.

On Tuesday, Crown prosecutor Mark Erina asked B.C. Supreme Court Justice Sheri Donegan to shut down Dougan’s appeal before it starts.

Dougan is appealing his conviction, Erina said, but he was never convicted. Though Frame’s ruling stated the Crown had proven its case, she stopped short of entering convictions on Dougan’s record — presumably because she knew the stays of proceedings were coming.

It has created an unusual situation.

“For the purposes of determining Mr. Dougan’s appellate rights, there is no conviction against which he can appeal,” Erina said. “There’s a judgment out there which essentially says he’s guilty. I don’t think that’s what he wanted with his stay of proceedings.”

Dougan sought judicial stays of proceedings due to delay. His lawyer filed the application to Frame and did the majority of the arguing over the six court days it took to hear it.

“It’s a remedy he sought — the benefit, but also the burden,” Erina said. “That’s a choice he made. The judicial stay has to go before Mr. Dougan can appeal.”

Court heard Frame’s decision stating the Crown had proven its case against Dougan could make it impossible for him to re-establish his career as a hunting guide. Dougan’s Big Boar Outfitters is not listed in the member directory of the Guide Outfitters Association of B.C.

“This finding has significant ramifications for him as a guide outfitter,” defence lawyer Kevin Church said. “This is what he does. He is a guide outfitter.”

Church said conservation authorities can look at such issues in determining whether Dougan can work as a hunting guide.

“The regional manager can consider if a person in Mr. Dougan’s situation is convicted of an offence under the [Wildlife] Act . . . or another cause that the regional manager feels reasonable,” he said. “Mr. Dougan’s livelihood certainly depends on his guide outfitter certificate.”

Erina said Dougan’s stays of proceedings were “tantamount to an acquittal,” but Church argued against that.

“This isn’t an acquittal,” he said. “This is Judge Frame saying the Crown proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Donegan reserved her decision on Tuesday. A date for her judgment has not been set.

Dougan was charged following a high-tech investigation on the part of Yukon conservation authorities that used 3D mapping software to locate a mountain range seen in the background of a picture in a big-game hunting record book.

The photo of Dougan and the trophy sheep was published in the Big Game Records of B.C. record book. Dougan claimed the record-setting Dall sheep was killed in a specific area in northwest B.C. in which he was allowed to hunt.

Using 3D mapping software, investigators in the Yukon were able to find a perfect match for the photo’s backdrop 18 kilometres north of the B.C./Yukon border — an area he was not supposed to have been hunting.

In 2011, investigators flew a helicopter to the Yukon location they found with the mapping software. They took a photograph of the backdrop, which was entered as evidence during Dougan’s trial to be compared to the photo from the record book.

The photos bear a number of striking similarities.

The record-setting sheep isn’t the only animal that has landed Dougan in hot legal water. He’s slated to stand trial in November in Williams Lake on three charges dating back to 2013 — hunting wildlife within six hours of being airborne, unlawful possession of dead wildlife and failure to accompany a person guided.

Last year, he was convicted in a Yukon court on charges alleging he wasted meat from sheep, caribou and moose killed in 2011 and hunted too soon after being airborne. In that instance, Dougan was leading a Wyoming hunter looking for stone sheep.

The American hunter was fined $11,500 and barred from hunting in the Yukon for 10 years. Dougan was fined $15,000 and given a 20-year ban on hunting in the Yukon.

Kristopher Teichrieb

A Kamloops man facing a charge of attempted murder stemming from an alleged baseball-bat beating that landed an 18-year-old high school student in a coma will be back in court on Thursday.

Kristopher Teichrieb is accused of beating Jessie Simpson in the early-morning hours on June 19. Evidence presented so far at his bail hearing, which began on Monday and will resume on Thursday in Kamloops provincial court, is protected by a court-ordered publication ban.

Teichrieb, 39, is accused of beating Simpson after finding the teen near or on his property. Simpson’s friends and family have said he was celebrating high school graduation with classmates on June 18 and may have been trying to find a group of friends when he was beaten.

Simpson has been on life support since the incident. Defence lawyer Jeremy Jensen has suggested the charge against Teichrieb could be upgraded to murder if Simpson succumbs to his injuries.

Jessie Simspon

Teichrieb was arrested just after 5 a.m. on Father’s Day after police were called to a reported altercation in the area of Holt Street and Clifford Avenue. Simpson’s friends and family have said he was beaten with a baseball bat after being confronted by Teichrieb.

Police initially said Teichrieb had confronted someone in the driveway of his Clifford Avenue home.

At a candlelight vigil on June 26, Simpson’s aunt described his condition as “grave” and said it had not changed since he was admitted to Royal Inland Hospital.

Police have said Simpson has not been able to verbalize anything to investigators. It is unclear if Mounties know why Simpson was on Teichrieb’s property, if he indeed was.

The altercation took place on Holt Street. Teichrieb’s home is on nearby Clifford Avenue.

Teichrieb is a father of three with no criminal record and the owner of at least two construction firms. Simpson lives in Savona and was graduating from South Kamloops secondary this year.

A prolific Kamloops runaway who has been the subject of multiple missing persons notices from police in recent months will spend the rest of the summer in jail to stop her from violating her bail.

The 15-year-old girl, who cannot be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, was in Kamloops provincial court on Wednesday, a day after she was arrested by police.

Court heard she was released on bail last week after pleading guilty to a number of charges, with a sentencing hearing set for Sept. 2.

“[She] lasted about four hours and was AWOL,” defence lawyer Graham Kay told court. “She’s been AWOL since then and she was picked up at a McDonald’s yesterday.”

Kay said the girl’s social workers are running out of ideas as to how to deal with her and have expressed concern about her capacity to understand the seriousness of her offending and how she might change moving forward.

“She’s building up quite a record in this court,” Kay said, calling her “a highly vulnerable youth.”

“There has been significant trauma in her life. She’s been the victim of multiple sexual assaults.”

Kay asked for the girl to be kept in custody until her Sept. 2 sentencing — on the understanding she will undergo a psychiatric assessment while behind bars — but Kamloops provincial court Judge Stephen Harrison was hesitant to keep the young girl locked that long.

“It’s just not practical to get an assessment done out of custody with [her],” Kay said.

Harrison agreed to keep the girl in custody for a 30-day assessment and re-visit the matter after that. She’s slated to appear in court by video on Aug. 18.

A former high-profile Kamloops Mountie accused of dealing drugs while a member of the national police force has yet to show up in person for a court appearance.

Randi Love (in photo above) is facing three counts of trafficking cocaine. Her matters were on the docket in Kamloops provincial court on Thursday, but a lawyer appeared on her behalf.

Charges were laid against the 40-year-old in May. According to court documents, the allegations date back to three dates in June 2015, when Love was still employed as an RCMP constable, but was on injury leave.

Police launched an investigation into Love’s activities last summer. In October, she submitted her resignation papers to the RCMP.

On Thursday, court heard lawyers are in early discussions and require more time to review disclosure. Love is due back in court on Aug. 11.

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 based largely on Love’s testimony. Wessner left policing following the conviction.

In 2008, Love was the media-relations officer at the Kamloops RCMP detachment, acting as the de facto face of police in the city.

A charge against a Kamloops woman accused of killing her newborn son more than four years ago has been reduced as her preliminary inquiry approaches.

Courtney Fawn Saul had been charged with second-degree murder in connection to the death of her son, George Carlos Saul, on Dec. 15, 2011. She is now charged with infanticide, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, as opposed to an automatic life sentence for a second-degree murder conviction.

Court has previously heard Saul’s son was killed within hours of his birth.

Saul was 19 at the time of her son’s death.

Last year, she was ordered to undergo a psychiatric assessment under a specific section of the Criminal Code that deals with mothers alleged to have killed their newborns. The goal of the assessment was to determine whether Saul was “disturbed” at the time of her son’s death.

The results of that assessment have not been made public, but Saul is slated to appear in Kamloops provincial court for a three-day preliminary inquiry beginning on Aug. 16.

Preliminary inquiries are hearings at which a judge determines whether there is enough evidence for a matter to proceed to trial.

Saul is not in custody.

Kristopher Teichrieb

A Kamloops man accused of beating an 18-year-old high school student into a coma last month after finding him on or near his Brocklehurst property will have to wait another week to find out whether he will be granted bail.

Kristopher Teichrieb, 39, is charged with attempted murder in relation to the June 19 beating of Jessie Simpson. His bail hearing began on Monday and wrapped up on Thursday. Evidence presented at the hearing is protected by a court-ordered publication ban.

Kamloops provincial court Judge Stephen Harrison is expected to give his decision on Teichrieb’s bail on Thursday, July 28.

Teichrieb is accused of beating Simpson with a baseball bat after finding the teen near or on his property. Simpson’s friends and family have said he was celebrating high school graduation with classmates on June 18 and may have been trying to find a group of friends when he was beaten.

Jessie SImpson

Simpson has been on life support since the incident. Defence lawyer Jeremy Jensen has suggested the charge against Teichrieb could be upgraded to murder if Simpson succumbs to his injuries.

Teichrieb was arrested just after 5 a.m. on Father’s Day after police were called to a reported altercation in the area of Holt Street and Clifford Avenue. Simpson’s friends and family have said he was beaten with a baseball bat.

Police initially said Teichrieb had confronted someone in the driveway of his Clifford Avenue home.

At a candlelight vigil on June 26, Simpson’s aunt described his condition as “grave” and said it had not changed since he was admitted to Royal Inland Hospital.

Police have said Simpson has not been able to verbalize anything to investigators. It is unclear if Mounties know why Simpson was on Teichrieb’s property, if he indeed was.

The altercation took place on Holt Street. Teichrieb’s home is on nearby Clifford Avenue.

Teichrieb is a father of three with no criminal record and the owner of at least two construction firms. Simpson lives in Savona and was graduating from South Kamloops secondary this year.

The sign outside the metal-clad barn in Knutsford declares it is home to Floritto Eggs.

But the smell emanating from the site on Long Lake Road is not the foul stench of chicken manure — it’s the pungent aroma of a lot of green marijuana.

“We get lots of calls about it because you can smell it,” acknowledged RCMP Staff Sgt. Doug Aird.

On the exterior of the quonset hut building at 40 Edith Lake Road, at the corner with Long Lake Road, are at least 10 air conditioning units.

Next door, at 100 Edith Lake Rd., is a metal-clad barn that formerly housed Floritto’s operations.

Thick power cables are visible, as are two air conditioning units.

LEGAL(ISH)

Aird said RCMP confirmed with a special Health Canada telephone line that the operators are protected under the former Marihuana Medical Access Program (MMAR) rules, phased out in 2013 with introduction of a new system for supplying medical marijuana for patients.

Today there are seven companies certified to grow medical marijuana in B.C. by Health Canada, part of 31 nationwide.

READ PART 2

Pick up a copy of the Tuesday, July 26, edition of KTW to read the second and final instalment of this series.

Through mail order, they supply patients who have a marijuana prescription from a physician. This is the only strictly legal way to obtain medical marijuana in Canada — though a grey market is flourishing under the eyes of police and governments.

Under the old rules, in B.C. alone about 16,000 licences existed in 2013 for personal or designated-person production. The Knutsford operations exist under these now-defunct licences.

While they are no longer recognized under new law, the old production licences remain in limbo after a federal court judge struck down a prohibition earlier this year against patients growing for themselves.

Citing privacy, a Health Canada official said the agency will not disclose permit holders nor production locations under the MMAR rules.

But through property title and company searches, Kamloops This Week spoke to the owner of one property and a company that has an option to purchase the adjoining lot and is operating as the landlord.

100 EDITH LAKE ROAD

Derrold Norgaard, chief financial officer at Green Sky Labs Inc., said it has a tenant at the 10,000-square-foot metal-clad barn growing marijuana for two people under the MMAR rules. The company is acting as a landlord for the property, which it has a legal agreement to purchase.

According to land title documents, it is currently owned by AQ Holdings, registered to director Quan Anh Le. A phone number listed on AQ Holdings’ filings comes back to a Lower Mainland accounting firm. A person who answered at the accounting firm said it has no information on AQ Holdings and does not act as a mailing address for clients.

Green Sky said it is acting in an ownership capacity for the property, even though it is not listed on title.

“The tenant provides us with information on what’s happening there,” Norgaard said.

“I know what we have: A tenant that’s adhering to the rules.”

Norgaard said Green Sky currently provides third-party testing for licensed growers and has extraction technology for cannabinoids, a process it licences and is conducting in Amsterdam.

He said Green Sky has a provisional licence with Health Canada as an accredited marijuana lab.

It wants to build on that accreditation by becoming the province’s eighth authorized producer under the new rules instituted in 2013, with production at the Knutsford property as well as in Barriere.

“The town [Barriere] is quite comfortable with our program. RCMP is quite comfortable. Health Canada, I believe, will be comfortable with who we are,” he said.

While Norgaard said he is unaware of any relationship to what appears to be the larger grow operation next door, KTW contacted Green Sky by speaking with a man who appeared to be residing in a trailer next door.

40 EDITH LAKE ROAD

The owner of the corner property is the operator of the former Floritto Eggs. Dawood Alibhai said his company — which lists son Amyn as a director (he is also a director on the B.C. Egg Marketing Board) — sold the next door property at 100 Edith Lake Rd. several years ago.

He said his tenant has a production licence and is insured. He acknowledged there is a connection with his tenant at Green Sky’s property next door but he does not know the exact nature.

“We don’t hide anything,” he said. “There is our building and we rent it out.”

The company still produces eggs at three other properties in Knutsford, but has moved its sorting, crating and packaging to the Lower Mainland.

‘AN OPEN SECRET’

Under the old MMAR rules, a Health Canada representative said a designated producer can provide for up to four medical marijuana patients. Courts have struck down any maximum per patient.

“It’s an open secret people get licences for way more than one human could possibly use,” said city lawyer Shawn Buckley.

“That was the police concern and drove the new regulations.”

Buckley said with as many as 16,000 licences still existing under the old rules, including for more than 2,000 designated producers, the obvious conclusion is they are supplying marijuana dispensaries.

“I think a lot of it is ending up in cannabis clubs,” he said.

Cheetie Malouin, who operated Kamloops Dispensary Services before shutting down at the end of last month, said her supply came from “LPs” — licensed producers under the now defunct MMAR rules. Licensed producers include the two operations on Edith Lake Road.

“All my stuff was from licensed producers — they’re everywhere,” she said.

“Every single day I had someone [LP] at my shop: small, big, Vancouver and up North.”

The Knutsford operations do not require business licences within the Thompson-Nicola Regional District.

The use is allowed under zoning because the parcels are within the Agricultural Land Reserve.

The Thompson-Nicola Regional District is suing a guest ranch near Ashcroft that bills itself as a “glamping” destination.

The statement of claim names Phoenix Alliance Corp. as the defendant. The property is the home of YD Guest Ranch, a 20-hectare site on Barnes Creek, about five kilometres east of Ashcroft.

On a website, YD Guest Ranch calls itself a top “glamping” destination — a term that combines camping and glamour.

The lawsuit alleges a long list of infractions:

• since 2010, it has been operating as a guest ranch, contrary to zoning bylaws;

• construction of  treehouse accommodations;

• construction of a cookhouse;

• failure to abide by stop-work and do-not-occupy orders;

• construction of buildings within a closed creek area.

Phoenix Alliance and its principal, Andrew McKinnon, have also been named in a number of lawsuits involving Wilderness Way Adventure Resort, also located in the Ashcroft area.

Creditors have alleged that company has not made mortgage payments on loans advanced to it and are seeking to foreclose.

Until recently, Wilderness Way’s website stated it will not be open this year due to an “ongoing shareholder dispute.”

It directed visitors to go to the website for YD Guest Ranch.

Wilderness Way’s website now appears to be back in operation and is accepting bookings.

Located about 10 kilometres south of Ashcroft off Highland Valley Road, it offers zlplining, horseback riding, ATV riding and hiking.

The black-market “Bike Guy” of Kamloops will be allowed to ply his trade on stolen bicycles despite being busted red-handed this week while dismantling a stolen RCMP bait bike.

Terrace Rudachyk pleaded guilty in Kamloops provincial court on Friday to one count each of possession of stolen property and possession of break-in instruments, as well as an unrelated charge of attempted theft from a vehicle.

The 37-year-old was arrested on Thursday morning after police were alerted to a bait bike activation. Court heard the bike had been placed by police near the north end of Overlanders Bridge at about 8:30 a.m. and began to move about three hours later.

Using GPS information, Mounties found the bike in a wooded area near the shore of the Thompson River off  Tranquille Road.

Officers spotted Rudachyk standing with the bike, attempting to dismantle the seat. He was with a group of women. Crown prosecutor Mike Wong said Rudachyk had a wrench and a bolt from the bike in his hand when he was placed in handcuffs.

Wong asked for a short jail sentence and a probation term preventing Rudachyk from possessing such tools. But, defence lawyer Jeremy Knight said, Rudachyk needs to be able to continue to help people with their bikes — even if they’re stolen.

“He likes to tinker,” Knight said. “He’s become known a bit as ‘The Bike Guy.’ People bring him their bikes.”

Knight said Rudachyk is often aware the bikes he’s working on are stolen, but Knight said that doesn’t make him a thief.

“He’s certainly wilfully blind to the fact that the bikes are stolen,” he said.

For his part, Rudachyk said he’s always been a tinkerer and he likes helping others.

“Most of the time, I do it for kindness,” he said in court. “But sometimes, if the person pays me, they pay me.

“It’s been a hobby of mine my whole life.”

Kamloops provincial court Judge Roy Dickey sentenced Rudachyk to a seven-day jail term to be followed by a year of probation — but he did not bar him from possessing tools.

“I’m not going to make any restrictions on the use of tools,” Dickey said. “I do that because of what I’ve heard and the fact he has no prior record of property offences.”

Elwin Wheeler holds a photograph of daughter Deanne.

A 42-year-old man who killed his former girlfriend, telling police she was a demon, was sentenced Monday in B.C. Supreme Court to serve at least 13 years in prison before he is eligible for parole.

Christopher Butler pleaded guilty in August of last year to second-degree murder in connection to the death of Deanne Wheeler.

Butler immediately notified police after he killed Wheeler on Dec. 20, 2014, when she came with coffee to visit him at his Cherry Avenue apartment in North Kamloops.

Justice Keith Bracken said Wheeler’s death has left a shattered family. The 26-year-old was an only child.

The 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.

Bracken noted Butler’s history of mental illness and his guilty plea as mitigating factors in his sentence. But he sided with the Crown, noting the violent attack was on a former domestic partner who had come to visit him. Butler also has a violent criminal record.

Butler admitted to strangling Wheeler with an electrical cord, hitting her in the head with a rock and stabbing her seven times.

Butler has been diagnosed with anti-social and narcissistic personality disorders and bipolar mood disorder. While he pleaded guilty early in court proceedings, his often bizarre behaviour in court caused Bracken to send him for a psychiatric assessment last year to determine if he was not criminally responsible due to a mental disorder at the time of Wheeler’s death.

Two psychiatrists who examined Butler found he was, more likely than not, able to distinguish right and wrong when he killed his former girlfriend.

Butler recounted to police that Wheeler had a demon inside her when he killed her, telling officers,

“I feared for my life and said, ‘Die, demon, die,’” before attacking her.

The Crown outlined what it called Butler’s stalking behaviour in the weeks before he killed Wheeler, including visiting her family home three times late at night and scrawling “I love you” on her car.

He also told Wheeler’s friend he planned to kill her new boyfriend, telling her, “‘I hope you realize Deanne is setting off a bomb inside of me, don’t you?'”

Following the sentence, Butler turned to Deanne’s father, Elwin, and apologized directly to him, as he did during the sentencing hearing earlier this month.

“I hope you find some closure in this sentence,” Butler said in a flat tone.

Elwin Wheeler declined to speak with reporters after the hearing. In a victim-impact statement, he told the court Deanne’s death resulted in the hospitalization of her mother for 18 months and has crushed the family with grief.

Andrew McKay

A former Thompson Rivers University administrator who was fired after getting caught hiding child pornography on his work computer will spend 90 days behind bars.

But it’s not yet known what other sanctions, if any, will be connected to Andrew McKay’s sentence.

The 55-year-old was charged after a backlogged office printer at TRU spat out an image of a naked teenager in front of an unsuspecting co-worker two years ago.

Crown prosecutor Evan Goulet said Monday the incident unfolded on May 12, 2014, when McKay’s co-worker, Lincoln Smith, went to pick up a document from a shared office printer. At the time, McKay was the director of graduate studies at TRU.

“There was a backlog at the printer,” Goulet said. “When Dr. Smith was able to fix it, a backlog of items came out of the printer. One of those things that came out was a colour photograph of a pubescent girl, 12 or 13 years old.

“It’s a selfie-style photograph of this girl taken by herself and she’s topless.”

Court heard Smith took the photo to McKay, who took it from him.

“He suggested Dr. Smith destroy the photograph because there was no way to determine where it had come from and he started to proceed to the shredding area,” Goulet said.

Smith took the photograph back and notified TRU’s IT department. McKay eventually admitted to Smith that the photo was his. Police were later called and McKay, a 23-year employee of the university, was fired a short time later.

Police seized McKay’s work computer and found three images of child pornography — the selfie, a photo of a topless undeveloped girl and a picture of a young girl with her bra undone — as well as encryption software and a “secure-delete” program.

“He stated it was to delete the files because he didn’t want to get caught with them at work,” Goulet said.

“He’s obviously a well-educated man, an intelligent man. He professes . . . he’s very good at being rational and solving problems. In the Crown’s assessment, that’s evident in his use of encryption software and secure-delete software as well.”

Following his guilty plea last year, McKay was ordered to undergo psychological testing. Goulet said the doctor who performed his assessment said McKay exhibits signs of hebephilia, a sexual attraction to people between 11 and 14 years of age.

“Dr. McKay has been aware of this for some time,” Goulet said. “He appears to structure his life in a way that he’s not around minors, basically.”

McKay’s guilty plea carries with it a mandatory minimum 90-day jail sentence, which Goulet and defence lawyer Shawn Buckley agree is appropriate, as well as a mandatory order he register as a sex offender for 10 years.

He must also  submit a sample of his DNA to a national criminal database.

Goulet asked for two years of probation with terms including limiting Internet access, mandatory counselling and limited access to children.

Goulet is also seeking an additional term that McKay be barred for a decade from volunteering or working with children.

Buckley opposed that, arguing McKay believed he was not breaking the law. Buckley presented to court a number of examples of readily available images of child nudity — including a book from the TRU library — he said were more graphic and sexual than the photos found by police on McKay’s computer.

“He actually looked at the child pornography line and believed he was not crossing that line,” Buckley said. “We’re talking about photos that Mr. McKay believed were not child pornography that he held onto for a very long time.

“His concern was actually that he was violating the university’s terms of use, which do not allow you to use computers for personal purposes.”

Buckley called McKay’s images “the tamest child pornography” and compared the content to what one might see on a European beach.

“Child nudity isn’t illegal in Canada, child pornography is,” he said, presenting the book Immediate Family, which he said he found in the TRU library.

“It’s interesting that Mr. McKay is fired from TRU when it was very easy to attend at the university and obtain in the possession of the university library some images which are more graphic and, in my view, some more suggestive than the ones that got Mr. McKay fired.

“When Mr. McKay was saying, ‘I looked at the legal line and I thought I was staying on the right side of the line,’ that wasn’t an unreasonable position for him to be taking.”

Buckley said McKay sold his home in Kamloops and now lives in Celista. He is working a job out of his field, court heard.

Kamloops provincial court Judge Mayland McKimm reserved his decision on whether McKay will be allowed to work or volunteer with children. Sentencing will take place Thursday.

A Kamloops man who secretly recorded videos of his teenaged stepdaughter getting out of the shower will spend the next 15 months in prison.

The 48-year-old cannot be named because the victim’s name is protected by a court-ordered ban on publication.

Court heard he surreptitiously recorded three videos of his stepdaughter, who was 13 or 14 at the time, as she emerged from the shower.

Crown prosecutor Laura Drake said the man slid his iPod under a bathroom door to capture the video.

He was busted by chance in June 2015, when his wife picked up his iPod and began flipping through photos. Court heard she found family photos, adult pornography and three videos of her naked daughter.

The woman called police and her husband was later arrested. In a victim-impact statement, she said she felt betrayed, ashamed and guilty.

Court heard the girl began using illicit drugs after the incident and has overdosed twice. She said she is also struggling in school and has suffered poor health.

The man was on parole at the time after serving two years in a federal prison for dangerous driving causing death in connection to a crash that killed his niece.

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Sheri Donegan handed him a 15-month jail sentence to be followed by three years of probation, with terms barring him from having any contact with his ex-wife or the victim and requiring him to tell any new partners about his offending.

He will also be required to surrender a sample of his DNA to a national criminal database and register as a sex offender for 20 years.

A Kamloops man accused of beating a teen into a coma after finding him on or near his Brocklehurst property last month has been denied bail.

Kristopher Teichrieb, 39, is charged with attempted murder in connection to the June 19 assault of Jessie Simpson, 18.

Teichrieb is accused of beating Simpson with a baseball bat after finding the teen on or near his property.

Simpson’s friends and family have said he was celebrating high school graduation with classmates on the night of June 18 and may have been trying to find a group of friends when he was beaten.

Simpson has been on life support since the incident. Defence lawyer Jeremy Jensen has suggested the charge against Teichrieb could be upgraded to murder if Simpson succumbs to his injuries.

During a brief hearing yesterday morning, Kamloops provincial court Judge Stephen Harrison denied Teichrieb’s application for bail. Reasons for Harrison’s decision and submissions made at the bail hearing, which ran over two days last week, are bound by a court-ordered publication ban.

Teichrieb was arrested at about 5 a.m. on June 19 after police were called to a reported altercation in the area of Holt Street and Clifford Avenue. Simpson’s friends and family have said he was beaten with a baseball bat.

Police initially said Teichrieb had confronted someone in the driveway of his Clifford Avenue home.

The altercation is alleged to have taken place on nearby Holt Street.

At a candlelight vigil last month, Simpson’s aunt described his condition as “grave” and said it had not changed since he was admitted to Royal Inland Hospital.

Teichrieb is a father of three with no criminal record and the owner of at least two construction firms. Simpson lives in Savona and was graduating from South Kamloops secondary this year.

Teichrieb is due back in court on Aug. 11.

Christina Ford, Simpson’s neighbour, said she supports the judge’s decision.

“I’m so glad he’s not on the street,” she said, arguing anybody charged with such a crime should not be released before trial.

“I’m glad he’s still in the system and not out there.”

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