A former gang leader serving a life sentence for murder alleges that he was assaulted by another inmate in Agassiz’s Kent Institution.

Peter Manolakos, the leader of the Greeks gang in Vernon, claims in a lawsuit filed in B.C. Supreme Court that on March 5, 2015, the inmate, identified as Murray Poorman, snuck into his cell with a “shank,” a makeshift bladed weapon, while Manolakos was in the common area getting his breakfast.

“When the plaintiff returned to his cell with his breakfast, the defendant Poorman, without warning or provocation, violently assaulted the plaintiff with the ‘shank’ he brought with him for that purpose,” says the lawsuit.

Manolakos says he suffered injuries to his head, left eye, neck, upper back and hands in addition to broken teeth. He also claims he has suffered headaches, sleeplessness, dizziness and memory loss.

“As a result of the assault, the plaintiff has suffered a loss of income, loss of earning capacity, and will suffer future loss of income, full particulars of which are not available at this time,” says the suit.

“As a result of the assault, the plaintiff has and will continue to incur expenses, including but not limited to, medication, dental work, physiotherapy, medical treatment and psychiatric and/or psychological counselling and treatment.”

Manolakos claims that prior to the assault at the maximum-security prison, officials knew that Poorman was a risk to other inmates and knew that Poorman routinely fashioned and possessed shanks and on several occasions had used those weapons to assault other inmates.

He says the Fraser Valley prison is liable because it failed to take all reasonable measures to protect him from the foreseeable risk posed by Poorman.

David Barry Marnuik.

No response has been filed to the lawsuit, which contains allegations that have not been tested in court. A spokesman for the Correctional Service of Canada said there would be no comment as the matter is before the courts.

In November 2012, Manolakos was convicted of the first-degree murder of Ronald Thom and the manslaughter of David Marnuik.  For the murder conviction, he received the mandatory sentence of life in prison with no parole for 25 years.  

He is appealing his convictions and the appeal is expected to be heard in June. Four other men were also convicted in connection with the drug-related slayings that terrorized the Vernon area.

Poorman is serving a lengthy jail term after being convicted of aggravated assault, assault and threats of violence to two justice system participants.

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A second murder trial in connection with the swarming attack of a Burnaby teen in Whistler got underway on Monday in B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver.

Arvin Golic, who had just turned 18 at the time of the May 2015 fatal stabbing of Luka Gordic, 19, has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder. Three other accused, who cannot be identified because they were under age 18, have already had their trial before a judge in Vancouver and are awaiting a verdict.

Golic’s trial was severed from the trial of the three other accused because youths cannot be tried together with adults in Canadian courts.

In her opening statement, Crown counsel Julie Robinson told B.C. Supreme Court Justice Mary Humphries that while the court will not hear any evidence that Golic actually stabbed Gordic during the swarming, the accused was at the scene and had “orchestrated” the murder.

Robinson told the judge that Golic was the only one with “animus” toward the victim and the only one with a motive.

Friends and family of fatal stabbing victim Luka Gordic attend a bail hearing at B.C. provincial court in February, 2016.

She said that the two young men were among a number of high school graduates from the Burnaby area who had travelled to the ski resort for some partying on the May long weekend. Some members of each group knew at least some members of the other group, Robinson said in a statement that contained many of the details heard at the first trial.

During the weekend, Gordic and some of his friends ran into friends of Golic, with Gordic telling them that Golic should stop being abusive toward his former girlfriend, said Robinson.

The Crown, which is expected to call the ex-girlfriend as a witness, said the young woman was not in Whistler at the time, but received phone calls and texts from Golic that revealed the accused to be in a “highly agitated emotional state.”

Golic’s communications with the young woman suggested that Golic had concluded that she must have been having a sexual relationship with Gordic, said Robinson.

“There was no such relationship,” the prosecutor told the judge.

A meeting of Golic and Gordic at the Olympic Rings in Whistler, with at least the prospect of a fight, was set for the Saturday, but Golic failed to show, said Robinson. When Golic did not show up, Gordic believed it was the end of the matter, but Golic persisted in wanting to make a plan to meet, she said.

Gordic was later attacked by a group of up to 15 young males, too large a group for the victim to defend himself against, said Robinson. Gordic suffered three stab wounds, one penetrating his heart causing his death.

More than 60 family members and friends of the victim attended the opening day of the trial, which is expected to run four weeks and hear from 53 Crown witnesses.

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Related

• B.C. judge urged to reject denials of three teenagers accused in death of teen in Whistler
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A man who was convicted in the murder of an Armstrong teen has had his conviction overturned on appeal and a new trial ordered.

In April 2014, a B.C. Supreme Court jury found Mathew Steven Foerster guilty of the October 2011 slaying of 18-year-old Taylor Van Diest.

Court heard that on Halloween night, the teen was planning to meet up with some friends to go trick-or-treating when she was attacked near a set of railway tracks.

Friends found her body in an area of bushes not far from the tracks. She’d been beaten and strangled and died later of her injuries.

Foerster’s DNA was found on a fingernail sample taken from the victim in hospital and cellphone records showed Foerster was in the area at the time of the fatal assault.

The accused admitted he was guilty of culpable homicide, and the issue at trial was whether it was murder or manslaughter — and, if murder, whether it was first- or second-degree murder.

The jury found him guilty of first-degree murder and he received the mandatory sentence of life in prison with no parole eligibility for 25 years.

Foerster raised five grounds of appeal, and in a ruling released Tuesday, a three-judge panel of the B.C. Court of Appeal found that two of those grounds of appeal — relating to B.C. Supreme Court Justice Peter Rogers’s charge to the jury — were sufficient to overturn the verdict and order a new trial.

In his reasons for judgment, B.C. Court of Appeal Justice Harvey Groberman found that one of the judge’s errors related to the accused’s disposal of a shoelace and a flashlight used in the attack.

He said Rogers had failed to instruct the jury that the accused’s disposal of the weapons was of no probative value in determining whether Foerster was guilty of murder rather than manslaughter.

“The use of a flashlight and a shoelace to attack someone is as consistent with manslaughter as with murder,” said Groberman in his 21-page ruling.

“The accused’s disposal of those weapons (particularly when no attempt was made to conceal the injuries to the victim) was of no probative value on the question of the accused’s intent at the time of the killing.”

The other error Groberman found related to the last text message sent out by Taylor Van Diest’s phone that she was being “creeped.”

Groberman said the judge should have issued an instruction of the limited use the jury could make of that text, but failed to do so.

Her boyfriend had interpreted the text to mean that someone was looking at her in a way she perceived as showing a sexual interest in her.

The issue became critical when the Crown invited the jury to use the message improperly, both by referring to it as proof of Foerster’s state of mind and by seeking to have the jury interpret the message to mean that she was being menacingly stalked, said Groberman.

“That meaning was not consistent with the evidence of Ms. Van Diest’s boyfriend on what she would have meant by ‘Being creeped,’” said the judge.

“Unfortunately, it is not possible to treat this error as harmless. While there was strong evidence suggestive of a sexual motive for the assault, it is impossible to say that the inappropriate submissions respecting the text message could not have affected the verdict.”

Groberman’s ruling was agreed to by Justice Pamela Kirkpatrick and Justice John Savage.

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A gas fireplace that allegedly was improperly installed is at the centre of a tragic legal case involving a former University of B.C. brain expert and his illustrator wife who claim they have suffered brain damage as a result of carbon-monoxide poisoning.

Dr. John Pinel, a retired psychology professor, and his wife, Maggie Edwards, allege their problems began in November 2008 after they moved back into the upper floor of their Vancouver home following renovations and the reinstallation of the fireplace.

They say that in 2009 they developed symptoms, including headaches, loss of balance, loss of concentration, inability to complete simple tasks, nausea and fatigue.

Then in early January 2010, they say they suffered from vicious headaches, nausea and loss of equilibrium, according to their lawsuit filed in B.C. Supreme Court.

They complained about their symptoms to Terasen Gas, their gas supplier, and were told to leave the residence immediately, says the suit. A Terasen Gas technician visited the home, turned off the gas supply and labelled the fireplace as hazardous, says the lawsuit.

The couple’s lawyers are arguing that carbon-monoxide poisoning from the leaking fireplace has caused them to suffer brain injuries.

“Their relationship has been affected as they are now short-tempered with each other, and misunderstand one another a lot,” according to an opening statement filed by the plaintiffs’ lawyer.

The couple’s difficulties were compounded Tuesday, when Pinel collapsed in the bathroom of the home, paralyzed on his left side. The trial, which began last week and included three days of testimony from Pinel, was suspended after he was rushed to Vancouver General Hospital.

Doctors discovered that he’d suffered a rupture of the aorta, the large blood vessel branching off from the heart, his son, Gregory Pinel, said in an interview Wednesday.

The dad had two surgeries at VGH and is fairing OK, according to his son, but is expected to remain in intensive care for a week. The trial has been put off until next week.

“The adjournment is until this coming Tuesday, but I don’t think he’s going to be able to participate by then,” said Gregory Pinel, 48, who runs a non-profit in New York that helps to improve underserved kids’ opportunities in sport and education. “I don’t know. I guess it’s too early to tell.”

The son added that with the type of surgery his father had, there’s a 20-per-cent chance in the first 30 days of dying and a 10-per-cent chance of getting a stroke. “It affects you to some degree for the rest of your life when it comes to physical exercise, certain types of activities you can do.”

In their suit, the couple claim that the defendants breached their duty of care and were negligent in regards to the fireplace. They’re seeking general and special damages, and court costs.

In a response filed to the civil claim, the defendants — Parkinson’s Heating Ltd. and Kenorah Construction and Design Ltd. — admit that in January 2010 it was discovered that the fireplace was not properly connected to a vent, but deny any wrongdoing.

“The defendants deny that the faulty connection between the fireplace and the vent resulted in the release of carbon monoxide into the plaintiffs’ house at harmful levels and/or for a sufficient duration to cause harm. The defendants expressly deny that the plaintiffs have sustained any loss or damage as a result of the alleged carbon-monoxide exposure as alleged or at all.”

Parkinson’s is a residential heating company that sells, installs and services heating products. Kenorah constructs and renovates home.

Carbon monoxide, a colourless, tasteless and odourless gas produced by incomplete combustion, can kill at extremely high levels of exposure. At lower levels, people can suffer from headaches, malaise, dizziness, fatigue, muscle aches and confusion.

Pinel, who retired from UBC in June 2008, is the author of more than 200 scientific papers and has written numerous textbooks over his career on neuropsychology, including the textbook Biopsychology, which he considers his major career-related accomplishment.

“It ties together everything that I love about my job: students, teaching, writing and research,” Pinel said of Biopsychology, in his biography on Amazon.

His wife, Maggie, an artist and technical writer, provided the illustrations in Biopsychology, which according to their lawyers has generated revenues of between $100,000 and $250,000 a year.

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A Mission couple has been acquitted of possessing a loaded firearm after a judge found their rights had been violated in connection with a police raid of their licensed marijuana grow-op.

Jeffery James Vanhorn and Tanya Christensen were jointly charged following a search of their residence in the 12700-block Carr Street in April 2013.

RCMP had received information from a medical clinic in Pitt Meadows questioning the authenticity of several applications made to Health Canada for authorization to produce, store and possess marijuana for medicinal purposes. Police came to believe that the applications for licences were fraudulent and the licences granted by Health Canada invalid.

Police obtained a search warrant and used a battering ram to enter the couple’s Mission home, where they found a loaded 9 mm Smith & Wesson handgun as well as two bulletproof vests and two additional rounds of ammunition.

At trial, the accused argued that it was an unreasonable search and seizure and that the evidence seized by police should be thrown out.

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Joyce DeWitt-Van Oosten found that there were problems with a document police filed seeking approval for the search. She said that while there was no deliberate intent to mislead or withhold information in the so-called information-to-obtain, police over-estimated and perhaps misconstrued the strength and meaning of the material from the clinic.

The judge said police also drew inferences that were not objectively warranted in respect of Vanhorn’s medical marijuana licence and made a premature assumption that the licences in question would be revoked by Health Canada.

After finding that the search was “warrantless” and unreasonable in the circumstances, the judge considered whether the evidence seized by police should be disallowed.

She concluded that the police had interfered with the accused’s right to a high degree of privacy in their home.

“They forced entry into the residence of the accused using a battering ram; they conducted a search of both the residence and an outbuilding on the property; and, there were 10 to 12 police officers in attendance,” said the judge.

The RCMP had ample time to make inquiries they should have made to clarify the status of the three medical marijuana licences registered at the address, she said.

Instead, police rushed to the conclusion that they were facing a “large scale, sophisticated marijuana grow operation” in contravention of drug laws without fully accounting for the licences which were valid at the time, said DeWitt-Van Oosten.

Noting that gun crimes pose a serious threat and that society has an interest in adjudicating cases on their merits, the judge said the court must also consider the long-term implications for the repute of the administration of justice in such cases.

“This is why there have been cases in which firearms have been excluded from evidence, notwithstanding the serious nature of the offences alleged to have been committed.”

The judge excluded the evidence, resulting in the acquittals. Drug charges laid against the couple were earlier set aside.

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A Maple Ridge man who was injured during a confrontation with one of his neighbours has been awarded more than $200,000 in damages.

Before the altercation between William Joseph Rycroft and Nelson Rego (the defendant), Rego’s son and another boy had been confronted by a third man who told them to leave the area of a BMX bike park near Rycroft’s home, where they were playing.

The boys went back home and told Rego’s wife what had happened. A short time later, Rycroft, who had been advised that there may have been some damage to the area near the property, arrived home.

What happened next was a matter of “considerable contention” during the trial, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Jim Williams said in his ruling on the matter.

The judge concluded that shortly before the July 2009 confrontation, Rycroft had entered the yard behind his residence and was walking at a moderate pace in the general direction of his own home when Rego, walking briskly, approached him.

“I accept that the plaintiff said words to the effect of ‘you must be the dad; I do not want kids playing there anymore,'” said Williams. “I find that, at that point, the defendant struck the side of the plaintiff’s head. The punch was of significant force and unexpected.

“As a consequence of the blow, the plaintiff went down in a forward direction, ending up on his knees. The defendant immediately applied some type of headlock to Mr. Rycroft from behind.”

The plaintiff suffered an injury to his left temple area as well as minor injuries to his arm, his elbow area and his hand, said the judge. Rycroft also incurred some injury to his knees.

The judge rejected Rego’s testimony that he had approached Rycroft in a benign and inoffensive manner and that the incident began when the plaintiff struck or pushed him. He rejected the notion that Rego was acting in self-defence or had been provoked.

While what Rego did was wrong and warrants sanction, his actions represented a “foolish loss of temper and acting out,” added the judge.

“At the same time, this was not a planned, deliberate and calculated attempt to physically assault another person.”

Rego and his wife claimed that before and after the incident, Rycroft had called Rego a “f…king Hindu” but the judge found there was no evidence to back up that claim.

“To my mind, that seems to be an odd remark to have been made. Having observed Mr. Rego in the courtroom, I noted nothing about him that would suggest that he has the appearance traditionally associated with people from the Indian subcontinent.”

The judge awarded Rycroft a total of $217,500 in damages, including $100,000 for past income loss, $70,000 for pain and suffering, $45,000 for loss of earning capacity and $2,500 for aggravated damages.

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A woman who concealed from her husband the fact that he was not the father of her son has lost her bid for child support from him.

The couple had been married for three years when the son, only identified by the initial D in a court ruling, was born in March 2009.

The husband, identified by the initials P.Z., took it for granted that he was the child’s natural father, but it turned out that the birth was apparently the result of a “dalliance” between his wife, identified as E.Z., and another man.

In the ruling, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Robin Baird said that it was not clear how or when the question of the child’s true parentage came up or what led the parties to agree to paternity testing.

But the paternity issue was laid conclusively to rest in June 2013, a year following the couple’s separation, when DNA lab results confirmed that the respondent in the case, the husband was not the dad.

“Not surprisingly, the respondent was crestfallen and felt upset and betrayed,” said the judge. “By this time, D was four years old.”

The couple were living in Ontario prior to the divorce but after the September 2014 divorce, the wife moved to B.C., apparently to start a new life with a local man she had met on the Internet.

At the divorce hearing, she admitted that her husband was not the child’s biological father and sought no child support, with the Ontario judge warning them that paternity was not necessarily determinative of child support obligations.

After the woman moved to B.C., the husband heard nothing more from her until February 2016, when she filed for child support through the B.C. courts.

She claimed he had acted as a parent to D during the brief interval between his birth and the breakdown of the marriage and alleged that her husband carried on as a parent until the time of the divorce.

But the husband said he’d not had any contact with the boy since a few months after the separation, an assertion accepted by the judge. He conceded that he voluntarily assumed the role of parent but only on the basis of a “serious mistake of fact” that set aside his consent.

In the ruling, Baird noted that there was no doubt that when D was born, the husband believed him to be his natural child, with his name appearing on the boy’s birth certificate and him caring and providing for D in every respect for a short time.

“D would, of course, have considered the respondent to be his father, although they have now been estranged for longer than they lived together and his memories are bound to become vague and dim,” said the judge.

“I doubt it could truly be said, given D’s tender years and the brevity of the connection between them, that the child formed any durable expectations of the respondent.”

The judge, who noted that there was no evidence of who the real father was, concluded that while the husband had stood in as a parent, the “whole thing was based on a serious and fundamental misapprehension of fact.”

It would not be in “the least bit fair” to order the husband to bear full responsibility for supporting the child, said Baird.

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Camille McAdie had her hopes up that she might finally get somewhere in her fight for child support from her former husband.

But that hope vanished when the Surrey mother of two teens and her lawyer appeared in B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver and were told that there were no judges available to hear her case.

“A lot of disappointment for sure,” McAdie, 50, says of her reaction to the news she got from Chief Justice Christopher Hinkson, who apologized to her and a number of other litigants who came before him last week. “I didn’t expect that to happen. I didn’t realize there was a shortage like that. I just was expecting that I was going to be in front of a judge.”

The adjournment was particularly frustrating for the single mom because she had to pay her lawyer to get prepared for the appearance and she had to take a day off from work to show up in court.

B.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Christopher Hinkson

At the March 6 court appearance Hinkson was dealing with litigants who had had hearings scheduled for a full day. The province’s top trial court judge told McAdie and her lawyer, Philip Cote, along with the other litigants and their lawyers, to go to the court registry in case a judge became available later in the day.

“We ended up waiting all day, though, because there was some urgency to our matter,” said Cote, who added that a judicial case manager eventually adjourned the case.

Cote said that for people of modest means, such delays can be costly.

“For the average client on a day like that day, I bet it would cost them in the range of $1,500 to $2,000 for that wasted appearance. We see it all the time now.”

McAdie is one of a growing number of litigants in B.C. who are having their cases bumped from the courts because of the chronic shortage of judges. The B.C. Supreme Court, the province’s superior trial court, is short nine judges, with another seven judges expected to retire by September.

“It’s unfortunate that we don’t have a sufficient complement of judges to permit the court to accommodate the needs of the public,” Hinkson said at the March 6 appearance.  “There’s nothing I can do about that unfortunately.”

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Hinkson pointed to delays by the new Liberal government in Ottawa in filling the vacancies, some of which he said had been outstanding for almost a year. When the Liberals came to power, they changed the process for federal appointments of judges, looking to increase diversity on the bench. Judicial advisory committees, which vetted candidates, were scrapped and after the last round of superior-court appointments, they also scrapped approved lists of candidates.

Earlier this year, the government established new judicial committees and asked people to reapply for the vacancies.

Michael Welsh, president of the B.C. branch of the Canadian Bar Association, said he understands that about 15 applications have come in so far in B.C. But he said the new appointment process was “very time-consuming” and much more extensive than the previous process.

“My own prediction is that we’ll have no more appointments to our superior courts until towards the end of this year. It’ll worsen the backlog.”

Welsh added that the judge shortage at the B.C. Supreme Court is also an ongoing problem with the B.C. Court of Appeal and the Provincial Court, which has judges appointed by the provincial government. And he said that it’s part of a general concern about staffing shortages at the courts, including sheriffs, court clerks and registry staff.

In an email, a spokesman for the federal justice department said that B.C. was among the first group of Judicial Advisory Committees (JAC) to be reconstituted under the new process and revised mandate.

“The JACs were selected in a manner so that their membership fully reflects Canada’s diversity and as part of the reforms, the JACs’ independence was increased,” said the email from Ian McLeod, senior adviser, media relations, at the justice department.

“The B.C. JAC is currently working in an expedited manner to review the applications in order to identify highly qualified candidates for the bench. Vacant positions in British Columbia will be filled in short order.”

Asked what he meant by “short order,” McLeod said in a followup email: “While we can’t prejudge their work and the specific time required, vacancies will be filled soon.”

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For the second time in less than a month, the president of the controversial Surrey Creep Catchers group is facing a defamation lawsuit.

In the latest case, Sean Smith, 48, of Campbell River, says that on Dec. 7 last year he posted a video on Facebook that was critical of the activities of creep catchers groups in general.

The groups aim to entrap and shame people they allege are involved in soliciting sex from minors.

Smith, who describes himself as a social media consultant and educator, says that he did not refer to Ryan LaForge, the president of the Surrey group, or to his group in particular.

But shortly thereafter, LaForge published a series of posts on Facebook pages that he usually employed to “out” persons that his “sting” operations had supposedly revealed as child sexual predators, said Smith’s notice of civil claim filed in B.C. Supreme Court.

The defamatory posts and accompanying commentary identified the plaintiff as a child sexual predator, said the lawsuit.

“LaForge suggested that the plaintiff would be revealed as a child sexual predator through a Creep Catcher ‘sting’ operation,” said the lawsuit. 

“The defamatory posts were false and were made deliberately and maliciously by LaForge knowing them to be untrue or with reckless disregard for their falsity.”

At the time the posts were made, LaForge’s Facebook pages had about 11,000 followers, said the lawsuit.

Some time after the posts were originally published, LaForge made further posts purporting to apologize for indicating that the plaintiff was a pedophile but has made no efforts to remove those posts, Smith, who is married and has children, said in the court filings.

Also after the posts, numerous followers and members of Surrey Creep Catchers, identified in the lawsuit only as John Doe #1 through #10 and Jane Doe #1 through #10, participated in a campaign of further defamation and intimidation against the plaintiff, which included threats of death or serious bodily harm, the lawsuit states.

As a result of the posts, Smith, part of whose work involves presenting to groups of children in the public school system, said he has suffered and has continued to suffer harm to his reputation and his economic interests.

He is seeking aggravated, exemplary and punitive damages in an amount to be determined by the court, and a permanent injunction prohibiting and restraining the continued and future publication of such posts.

Related

• Surrey Creep Catchers president sued for defamation
• Surrey Creep Catchers under investigation by B.C. privacy watchdog
• Surrey Mountie charged after vigilante sting will vigorously defend himself: lawyer

In late February, Jamie Su, an Abbotsford man, filed a defamation suit claiming that his reputation and that of his family’s restaurant suffered after LaForge falsely accused him of trying to procure sex from a minor.

CTV reported March 12 that another man is intending to sue LaForge for defamation but no such lawsuit appears to have been filed yet.

Police in B.C. and across Canada have repeatedly condemned Surrey Creep Catchers for its tactics.

No response has yet been filed by LaForge to the lawsuit, which contains allegations that have not been tested in court.

But an email sent from the Surrey Creep Catcher’s website said that Smith was never called a pedophile.

“He was called a pedophile support due to his actions. If Sean Smith was smart he’d read his lawyer’s own advice. He has a social media platform used for debate in which he has people defaming me along with himself. I’m not worried about his lawsuit.”

Asked to comment on Su’s lawsuit and the other apparently pending lawsuit, a further email said only: “I welcome (any) goof that wants to drag his name though the mud more.”

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A man accused of murdering his wife and one other man told undercover police that before his spouse’s slaying, people were telling him to get rid of her and that he twisted her neck during the fatal assault.

For two days, a B.C. Supreme Court jury has been listening to details of Jaswant Singh Gill’s confession to the killings of wife Gurpreet (Ruby) Gill, 33, on Valentine’s Day in February 2006 and Thomas Eldon Akerman, 26, in December 1994.

He has pleaded not guilty to the second-degree murder of Gill and not guilty to the first-degree murder of Akerman.

The court heard that Gill, who had a stormy relationship with his wife, told a police officer — posing as the leader of a criminal organization — that before the slaying people were telling him the same thing: “Get rid of her. Get rid of her. Get rid of her.”

He added later: “What I did was, I did what my parents told me to, to get rid of the relationship.”

Gill said his wife “flipped her switch” when he confronted her.

“It was just, she just kept going on and on about my mother, just cursing her, just — I mean, wishing like the evilest things on her, do you know what I mean?”

Asked by the officer what kind of fight it was, Gill replied that it was a “twisting of the neck.”

“And then like, did it break her neck?” asked the undercover cop posing as Mr. Big.

“Ah, I didn’t hear it,” said Gill.

“But it might have,” said the officer. “Was she still alive after that?”

“Ah, there was a lot of her demon coming out,” said Gill, who added that by demon he meant an energy “like a vibration.”

Gill confessed to being on top of the victim, holding her down and making eye contact with her during the assault.

“Yeah, I was looking right at her and making sure that it was the real her, the one that I saw, when I seen her in India.”

Gill told the officer that after he killed his wife, he put her in a plastic bag, stored her body in a refrigerator before getting the assistance of another man to dispose of the body on “military” lands in Richmond.

Court has heard that Gurpreet Gill came to Canada from India after an arranged marriage with her husband in 2000, initially living in Victoria with the husband’s family and later moving to Vancouver to be with Gill.

Gurpreet’s mother reported that her daughter was missing to the Vancouver police, initiating a missing person’s case that eventually turned into a homicide investigation.

During his meeting with the undercover officer at a hotel in Whistler, Gill made the startling admission that he’d killed another person and two in total.

He said he shot a man three times in a vehicle parked near Metrotown. Akerman was shot while he sat in a vehicle at a park in Metrotown.

Asked by the officer whether the fatal shooting was a “drug thing,” Gill replied that it was a “greed thing.”

“He — he is greedy and you need to take care of it?” said the officer.

“Ah — the message was to get rid of people that were gonna make things harder for your own families later on,” replied Gill.

The trial is expected to continue Friday.

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A man whose vehicle struck and killed a homeless man following a confrontation near the notorious street in Surrey known as “The Strip” has been convicted of criminal negligence causing death.

On Friday, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Jim Williams also found Christopher Lennox Griffith guilty of failing to remain at the scene of the August 2013 accident that took the life of Robert Paterson, 40.

Griffith testified that before the fatal collision, he feared for his life because of the presence of people armed with weapons around his truck and didn’t realize that he had struck someone when he fled a parking lot at the Royal Canadian Legion at 135 A Street and 106 Avenue.

But the judge said he was unable to accept that he didn’t know that he had hit someone, noting that, in a statement to police, Griffith had said he saw someone but that it was too late.

Williams said that Griffith drove his truck from the parking lot over a sidewalk and into the street without any real idea of where he was going and with a real risk he would encounter people.

“The manner in which he drove was manifestly and egregiously reckless,” said the judge. “His speed and the aggressive nature of the driving in the circumstances significantly aggravated the risk he took.”

135A Street in Whalley, known as The Strip, is frequented by homeless people, drug users and prostitutes.

Griffith, who was driving without a licence at the time, had earlier in the evening consumed five beers at a bar with a friend. He then picked up a sex trade worker at The Strip and had returned to the legion’s parking lot after she performed a sex act for him.

The judge said a number of people were in the vicinity of the truck and “some sort of disagreement” was brewing between the people inside the truck and those outside the vehicle, one of whom was brandishing some sort of stick or pipe.

Griffith, a 31-year-old electrician at the time, got out of his truck and went to the rear of the vehicle to get a baseball bat before getting back inside his truck. He became increasingly concerned that the group of people represented a threat to him and the woman inside his vehicle.

To discourage people from approaching his truck, he revved the engine and made some short, lurching movements forward. When those measures failed to have an effect, he decided to “drive his way out of the problem,” said the judge. He drove forward aggressively, forcing some people to go one direction, but hit Paterson, who had nothing to do with the confrontation.

“He was substantially a bystander,” the judge said of Paterson. “He was there to see what the problem was and for no other reason.”

When he was hit by the truck, Paterson was thrown in the air and when he landed the vehicle drive over top of him.

Griffith drove off and later abandoned the vehicle. He phoned a friend but did not call police before getting into a cab and returning to the vicinity of the accident, where he was arrested.

The accused argued that his actions were necessary in the circumstances and that he was acting in self-defence, but the judge rejected both of those arguments.

The case has been put over to March 30 to fix a date for sentencing.

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A White Rock man has filed a class-action lawsuit aimed at getting the B.C. government to stop spending millions on what he and his lawyers are calling partisan advertising.

David Trapp, representative plaintiff in the case, was angry at watching government ads running on TV while he was recently recovering from cancer.

He and his lawyers, David Fai and Paul Doroshenko, are seeking to have a judge impose an injunction on the ads, given the looming provincial election campaign.

They claim the government has spent up to $15 million on the ads and want the court to certify the case as a class-action suit, arguing the Liberals have consistently engaged in taxpayer-funded partisan and non-essential advertising since being elected in May 2013.

Trapp, 63, a retired TransLink employee, told reporters Monday that the thing that bothers him the most about the ads is that he is helping pay for them and, secondly, that the Liberal party on its own has raised millions in donations.

“So why am I paying for them to tell me how great British Columbia is? If it’s so great, then why do we have to have it shoved down our throat every 15 minutes on Global News?”

Doroshenko called the suit a public-interest litigation and told the reporters that he and Fai will not be working on the case on a contingency basis. They have launched an online fundraising campaign in a bid to defray the expected legal costs.

“Right now they’re distorting the electoral process by taking this money and using it for their own purpose,” Doroshenko said of the Liberal government. “We want to stop that as quickly as possible.”

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The suit, which names both the B.C. government and the B.C. Liberal Party as defendants, identifies several offending advertisements, including ads dealing with a government plan on jobs and a plan to promote the liquid natural-gas industry.

Doroshenko said that the ads are breaching the government’s fiduciary obligation to taxpayers, with the Liberal party getting a “huge” benefit because they don’t have to spend money on advertising.

“We say they’re converting the taxpayer money into their own money for their own purpose,” he said. “We believe strongly that we have a good legal basis for the lawsuit we’re advancing.”

Said Fai: “We say that’s a misappropriation of public funds and a breach of the public trust. We’re not looking to make money. We want the B.C. Liberal Party to pay the government back the money spent on their ads.”

The lawyers pointed to a 2014 report by B.C.’s auditor general that reiterates a 1996 report from the auditor general recommending that the government establish a policy that prohibits the use of partisan political information in public government communications.

An email from the B.C. Ministry of Advanced Education, which is responsible for government communications and advertising, defended the ads and said that the suit was timed to occur just before the election.

“The issues should be addressed in the election and not in the courtroom,” said the email. “Government has informed British Columbians about important services and programs.”

The email said government has provided information, including details about the opioid overdose crisis that claimed the lives of more than 900 people last year, as well as changes to Medical Services Plan premiums.

“Government worked with the Office of the Auditor General to ensure that all information campaigns fulfil clear criteria: be fact-based, inform the public about government programs, services, policies or priorities and provide an opportunity for the public to engage with the government.”

Doroshenko said he hopes to bring the injunction application before a judge within the next two weeks.

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A Cranbrook man who was convicted of murdering his wife and two infant sons claims there was a miscarriage of justice in his case and is going to court in a bid to get the Crown to release a number of exhibits for DNA testing.

In December 1995, a B.C. Supreme Court jury found Dean Christopher Roberts guilty of three counts of first-degree murder. He was sentenced to life with no parole eligibility for 25 years.

The convictions came after Roberts confessed to the July 1994 slayings of his wife, Susan Roberts, 24, and his baby sons Josiah and David, following a Mr. Big undercover police operation.

The B.C. Court of Appeal dismissed an appeal he made in April 1997.

Roberts, who was 26 years old at the time of his conviction, did not seek leave to appeal his case to the Supreme Court of Canada within the time limit, but “has consistently maintained his innocence,” according to a petition filed in B.C. Supreme Court.

He claims there has been a miscarriage of justice and says he needs to do the DNA testing as part of an application for a ministerial review of his case.

“Modern DNA testing of the exhibits and evidence sought in this petition may reveal exonerating evidence, or at least assist in further investigating the petitioner’s innocence claim,” says the petition.

“The applicant has requested that the Crown release some of the exhibits and evidence sought in this petition for DNA testing. The Crown has denied these requests.”

Roberts says that following the initial police investigation, fingernail clippings were taken from his wife’s hands and a purple bag that police believed was used to transport Josiah.

He says only the fingernail clippings yielded human DNA of sufficient quality and quantity for DNA testing but that the DNA testing did not match him.

Roberts claims a number of items were not tested for DNA, including  plastic bags found within the purple bag, a cigarette butt found near Josiah’s body and the ropes used to strangle Susan and Josiah, and he wants the Crown to turn over those exhibits to him.

“The evidence implicating the petitioner was primarily based on his confession during the Mr. Big operation,” says the petition. “There was no physical or forensic evidence implicating the petitioner in the offences.”

Roberts is seeking the review under a section of the Criminal Code that he says does not establish a process for the disclosure of materials in the possession of police or the Crown.

The jury heard that he had strangled his wife and one of his sons and smothered the second son. In attempt to cover his tracks, he set the family home on fire. 

Roberts confessed to Mr. Big, an RCMP officer posing as a crime boss, that he killed his wife after previous attempts to kill her had failed. He’d insured her life for $200,000.

A spokesman for B.C.’s criminal justice branch said the branch was aware of the petition and will be addressing the issues raised in the petition before the court.

“The branch will not be publicly commenting on the circumstances of the case, the issues or the allegations in the petition out of a respect for the judicial process,” Dan McLaughlin, a Crown spokesman, said in an email.

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A senior member of the Hells Angels in B.C. who was convicted in connection with a major cocaine conspiracy should spend 18 to 20 years behind bars, a prosecutor argued Tuesday.

In September, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Carol Ross found David Giles, the vice-president of the Kelowna chapter of the notorious motorcycle gang, guilty of conspiracy to import cocaine, conspiracy to traffic in cocaine and possession for the purpose of trafficking. Three of his co-accused were also convicted at the same time.

In sentencing submissions, Crown counsel Chris Greenwood told the judge that Giles played a key role in the conspiracy along with Kevin Van Kalkeren, an accused who had earlier pleaded guilty in the case.

Court heard that the two men were targeted in a reverse sting police undercover operation that included meetings between the accused and cops posing as members of a drug cartel in Vancouver, Montreal, Mexico City and Panama City.

In June 2012, Giles and Van Kalkeren met with the undercover cops at the Pan Pacific Hotel in Vancouver and provided $2 million as a down payment for the purported delivery of 200 kilograms of cocaine.

The next month, the accused met with the undercover cops and discussed the possibility of obtaining another 300 kilograms of cocaine.

In August 2012, the conspirators provided another $2 million for delivery of the initial 200 kilograms. Later that month arrangements were made for the delivery of the drugs at a warehouse and police swooped in and made arrests.

Greenwood said the Giles was at the “very highest level” of the drug trade and motivated entirely by profit.

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“The reality is that Mr. Giles wanted high quality cocaine at a competitive price so that he could move it as quickly as possible,” he said. “He played a leading role in both conspiracies for which he’s been convicted. He and Mr. Van Kalkeren essentially were equal partners.”

Van Kalkeren, who received a sentence of 16 years in prison, handled logistics and put up the money but Giles used his reputation to back up the deal. He also guaranteed payment and played the most prominent role in the planned distribution of cocaine once it got to Canada, said Greenwood.

Paul Gill, a lawyer for Giles, agreed with the Crown’s submission that his client wanted to traffic in drugs but argued that Van Kalkeren played a “broader” role in the conspiracy.

He said that while his client was eager and motivated to make money, Giles at the time in question was not searching for a cocaine deal with Van Kalkeren or anyone else.

Gill, who argued for a sentence of 12 to 16 years, told the judge that while Giles found himself elevated to a senior level of drug trafficking, he had no such capability and “it’s almost a comedy of errors” in terms of what happened.

He cited as an example Giles’s inability to turn on a BlackBerry provided to him by the undercover cops for communications purposes.

And he pointed to the poor condition of the money — suitcases full of “mildewy, mouldy” cash — the conspirators paid the undercover cops for the drugs.

Gill said Giles may have had the intention to traffic in the drugs but did not have an existing trafficking network as claimed by the Crown and argued that the RCMP all along wanted to target Giles because of his gang connections.

“We say that much of this investigation was inspired by an intention to get at the Hells Angels. He was the vessel by which they were going to do that.”

Gill’s submissions are to continue Wednesday.

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The failing health of a senior Hells Angel convicted in a major cocaine conspiracy is a mitigating factor on sentencing, a defence lawyer argued Wednesday.

In September, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Carol Ross found David Francis Giles, 66, guilty of conspiracy to import and traffic in cocaine, and possession for the purpose of trafficking.

On Wednesday, the second day of a sentencing hearing for Giles, the accused’s lawyer told the judge that Giles has suffered from cirrhosis of the liver for a long time and that it is at the “end-stage” of the disease.

“That means that unless they do something, you’re done,” Paul Gill told the judge, adding that Giles’s future “looks bleak.”

Gill said Giles also suffers from hepatitis C, which was diagnosed around February 2012, near the beginning of the undercover police operation that resulted in the arrests of Giles and a number of other co-accused.

He said hepatitis C, a virus that attacks the liver, should not normally be fatal and is treatable for many people, but it must be diagnosed within a reasonable time.

“Mr. Giles is past the point where it’s treatable,” said Gill, adding that Giles’s liver was “shutting down” on him.

Gill said he has had trouble getting up-to-date medical information from the North Fraser Pre-Trial Centre, the prison where Giles is currently incarcerated, and fears that he might not get the liver transplant that he needs.

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“My concern is that he’s never going to get on the real transplant list,” he said.

Gill said that Giles, vice-president of the Kelowna chapter of the notorious motorcycle gang, also suffers from a rare condition involving a loss of brain function related to the loss of liver function.

The Crown earlier said that while the father of three’s medical condition deserves sympathy, the offender had had ill health during the conspiracy and that did not stop him from pursuing his criminal activity.

In describing Giles’s personal circumstances, Gill challenged a submission from the Crown that when Giles told the undercover cops that he was broke and wanted to get his life back, he meant that he was seeking to get back in the drug trade.

Gill told the judge that what Giles really meant was that he had lost everything after the Canada Revenue Agency launched an investigation into his tax situation and he wanted to get his finances back.

The Crown responded that Giles’s tax litigation case was being pursued in the Federal Court of Canada, another forum. And while the tax case might have put Giles under stress, those considerations were irrelevant on sentencing, said the prosecution.

The Crown argued that Giles played a key role in a reverse-sting police operation that saw Giles and his co-accused paying $4 million for a purported delivery of 200 kilograms of cocaine. 

Prosecutors are seeking a jail term of between 18 and 20 years for Giles. Gill has argued that a more appropriate sentence for his client is between 12 and 16 years.

Giles, who has remained in custody since his arrest in August 2012, will be entitled to credit for pre-sentence custody of just under seven years.

The judge is expected to hand down her sentence on Giles on March 31.

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A Hells Angels associate who was convicted in a major cocaine conspiracy has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.

James Howard, 39, was one of eight men arrested following a reverse sting operation conducted by undercover RCMP officers between January 2011 and August 2012.

The sale of 500 kilograms of cocaine was negotiated in what was intended to be the first in a series of continuing transactions.

In September, Howard and three other co-accused were convicted following a trial before B.C. Supreme Court Justice Carol Ross. Howard was found guilty of conspiracy to traffic in cocaine and possession for the purpose of trafficking but acquitted of conspiracy to import cocaine.

In imposing sentence on Howard on Thursday, the judge said he played a “relatively senior role” in the conspiracy and was motivated by profit.

The conspirators paid a total of $4 million for the first shipment of what they believed was to be 200 kilograms of cocaine, with a further 300 kilograms to be delivered at a later date.

Howard met with the undercover cops, participated in the negotiations, and was in direct communication with his co-accused David Giles and Kevin Van Kalkeren — who the Crown argued were the key players in the conspiracy, and delivered the second instalment of $2 million to the cops.

He was introduced to the cops, who were posing as members of a South American drug cartel, as the “transportation guy,” the man who would organize the work force to take delivery of the drugs.

The aggravating factors in the case included the nature and quantity of the drugs, the fact that a significant amount of planning and deliberation went into the conspiracy, and that it was to be an ongoing criminal enterprise.

During the conspiracy, Giles and Van Kalkeren told the undercover cops that Howard had a past history in the drug trade, with Howard making a similar claim himself.

But the judge, who found at trial that the conspirators were motivated to close the deal and motivated to exaggerate their expertise, said it had not been established to the required level of proof that Howard had previously been involved in drug trafficking.

The mitigating factors included that Howard, a father of one, had no prior criminal record, had a strong employment history and had strong support from family and friends.

The judge also noted that Howard had been on strict bail conditions following his release from custody soon after the arrest and had had no problems on bail.

She said she accepted Howard’s statement that he took responsibility for his actions and was remorseful for trafficking in cocaine, a destructive and powerfully addictive drug.

After considering all of the factors, the judge imposed a sentence of 10 years, reduced by 39 days after giving Howard credit for pre-sentence custody.

The Crown had called for a 15-year jail term, while the defence argued for a jail term of between eight and 10 years.

Howard waved to a number of people in the public gallery in the Vancouver courtroom as he was led away by sheriffs to jail.

A fifth accused who went to trial alongside Howard was acquitted. Van Kalkeren and two other accused pleaded guilty and have been sentenced.

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B.C.’s police watchdog is taking Vancouver police Chief Adam Palmer and seven of his officers to court over what it considers a lack of cooperation with an investigation into the fatal shooting by cops of a man outside a Canadian Tire store last year.

On Nov. 10, police converged on the store in a mall near Grandview Highway and Rupert Street after reports that a large man in camouflage had entered the premises and stabbed a store employee.

When the suspect left the store he grabbed an 82-year-old man and held him hostage at knifepoint before being shot by police. Daniel Peter Rintoul, 38, died at the scene. A police officer was also hurt during the incident.

The Independent Investigations Office of B.C. (IIO), which investigates police shootings, designated a number of Vancouver police officers as “witness officers,” meaning they were present at the scene, but were not believed to have caused or contributed to Rintoul’s death.

But in the months since the shooting, the seven officers in question have refused or failed to attend interviews requested by IIO investigators, according to a petition filed in B.C. Supreme Court.

The sticking point is a request by the cops to be provided disclosure from the IIO, including cellphone and security-camera video footage of the shooting incident, before they can be interviewed.

Police are seen outside a Canadian Tire store in Vancouver, B.C. Thursday, Nov. 10, 2016.

“They have demanded, through their counsel or union representative, pre-interview disclosure of certain investigative-file materials in the IIO’s possession as a precondition of any IIO interviews,” says the petition.

“The petitioner is not prepared to provide the witness officers with the requested pre-interview disclosure, although it is prepared to provide some limited materials on the day of the interview, prior to the interview commencement.”

The petition says that on March 6 the IIO wrote to Palmer and demanded that he order his officers to comply with their statutory duty to cooperate with the investigation by attending interviews.

“Chief Palmer replied in correspondence dated March 13, 2017, and advised he ‘had decided to seek legal advice’ on the matter,” says the court document.

One of the lawyers for the cops told the IIO that his client would not attend the interview unless he was given a full opportunity to first refresh his memory with video recordings of the incident. But the IIO responded by say that viewing of pre-interview video had the potential to distort officers’ memories of the shooting incident.

“The IIO further stated that as it was interested in determining not only what actually occurred, but also the officers’ perception of the event, any risk that outside information could alter or affect the officers’ memory needed to be closely guarded against,” says the petition.

The IIO is seeking a number of court orders, including that Palmer be directed to compel his officers to attend the requested interviews.

Asked to comment, Vancouver police spokesman Staff Sgt. Randy Fincham replied in an email: “It wouldn’t be appropriate for us to comment on a petition that is before the courts or in regards to a case that is being reviewed by an outside agency, such as the IIO.”

The IIO was established in 2011 and went into operation in 2012. It has jurisdiction over all police-related incidents of death or serious harm in B.C., for both municipal police and RCMP detachments.

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Police investigate at Canadian Tire on Grandview Highway in Vancouver on Thursday, Nov. 10, 2016.

A member of the Hells Angels who was convicted in connection with a major cocaine conspiracy should spend six to seven years behind bars, a prosecutor argued Friday.

In September, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Carol Ross found Bryan Oldham, sergeant at arms for the Kelowna chapter of the notorious motorcycle club, guilty of one count of possession for the purpose of trafficking.

Court heard that Oldham played a limited role in the conspiracy that saw the sale of 500 kilograms of cocaine negotiated following a reverse sting operation conducted by the RCMP between January 2011 and August 2012.

David Giles, also a member of the Hells Angels, brought Oldham into the scheme after the undercover cops told him that the deal would only be possible if he arranged for two other members of the motorcycle club to fill in for Giles if need be.

Despite the limited role, the Crown argued that it was still very serious because without Oldham, the deal could not have happened.

“Mr. Oldham was prepared to do whatever was necessary to ensure that the deal went through and the cocaine was delivered,” Crown counsel Chris Greenwood told the judge during Friday’s sentencing hearing in Vancouver.

“The inevitable consequence of that was going to be the dissemination of 500 kilograms of cocaine into the community.”

Hells Angel Bryan Oldham

Noting that there were no prior criminal cases that were similar, Greenwood argued that there was a “pressing need” for deterrence in the case, with Oldham being a mature individual and not a drug user.

“He had time to think about this and he had time to discuss it in advance with Mr. Giles. And the moral culpability lies in his willingness to facilitate this massive deal to suit his own purposes and those of Mr. Giles.”

Ian Donaldson, a lawyer for Oldham, told the judge that a sentence of four years would adequately meet all of the principles of sentencing.

He argued that Oldham’s involvement was more “generic” than the Crown’s submission that without him the deal would not have happened.

Donaldson said that the police didn’t care who Giles brought to the meeting and for investigative reasons insisted that he bring members of the Hells Angels.

“But it wasn’t that it had to be high-ranking, low-ranking (members),” he said. “Certainly, it wasn’t, ‘You better bring Mr. Oldham.'”

Donaldson said there was no evidence that Oldham was going to be paid for what he did and wasn’t involved in the transportation or delivery of the drugs.

“He isn’t trusted in any of those ways. He isn’t part of those sorts of aspects of the bigger scheme.”

Donaldson said that apart from a criminal record dating back to when he was 19 years old, Oldham was “essentially” a law-abiding citizen until he became involved in the criminal scheme with Giles and the others.

“He became a motorcycle enthusiast with others out of a sense of enjoyment and camaraderie and loyalty, but was not a person who was committing criminal offences.”

Oldham is expected to be sentenced at a later date.

Giles and two other men were convicted along with Oldham following a lengthy trial. A fifth accused was acquitted. Three others pleaded guilty and have been sentenced.

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A Lillooet man whose drunk driving killed three people, including two cyclists, should receive a 12-year jail term, a prosecutor argued Monday.

In February, Samuel Michael Alec, 45, pleaded guilty to three counts of impaired driving causing death in connection with a collision near Pemberton in May 2015.

He ran head-on into cyclists Ross Chafe, 50, and Kelly Blunden, 53, while they were out on a training ride on Highway 99, about 25 kilometres north of Pemberton. The two Whistler men were killed, as was Paul Pierre, 52, a close friend of Alec and a passenger in the vehicle.

Before the accident, Alec, who has a lengthy driving record, had been engaged in a continuous binge of drinking while mourning the loss of a friend in Mount Currie.

His family, who had seen him intoxicated, told him not to drive his sister’s Cavalier back to Lillooet, but he refused to hand over the keys and got into the vehicle.

Near the crash scene and just before the fatal collision, one driver observed Alec approaching her quickly from behind, swerving into the oncoming lane, forcing her to step on her brakes and let him pass.

Alec narrowly missed hitting an oncoming motorcycle, which was forced onto the gravel shoulder.

Chafe, Blunden and Stewart Blaser were, meanwhile, riding their bikes southbound on the highway, with Blaser falling behind before Alec smashed into the two riders in front of Blaser.

As Blaser looked up, he saw his friends about 100 to 200 metres ahead of him, and suddenly heard the sound of a collision.

He rode into view of the accident scene, came to a stop and dismounted his bike. Seeing debris and recognizing body parts, he did not approach any further, said Crown counsel Grace Oh in describing the terrible scene.

In a victim-impact statement, Blaser said the fatal collision had “changed my life forever” and he’d lost two dear friends who had had a positive influence on him in more ways than one.

“I was there riding with my buddies,” he told Justice William Ehrcke. “All things being equal, I should probably be dead, too. The horrific sound I heard that day and the images in my mind will haunt me forever.”

Two doctors who were among the first to arrive at the scene found Chafe and Blunden lying in a ditch just north of Alec’s car. The two men had suffered fatal injuries. The doctors also found Pierre dead in the vehicle.

After the collision, Alec was seen getting out of the car and approaching a number of vehicles, asking for a ride to Pemberton. When one motorist told him there’d been an accident and police were being called, he said: “No police, no police.”

Whistler cyclist Kelly Blunden. He was struck and killed by a vehicle on May 31, 2015.

After getting into one motorist’s vehicle and then being told to leave, he was approached by a motorcyclist who told him to stay at the scene. Alec pushed off of the man and fled, saying: “You can’t prove I was driving the car.”

Following a struggle, Alec was brought to the ground and later arrested by cops before being taken by air ambulance to Vancouver General Hospital to be treated for the injuries he’d suffered.

Much of Monday, the first of an anticipated three-day sentencing hearing, was taken up with the judge hearing victim-impact statements from family and friends of the victims.

A family friend read out a victim-impact statement from Donnie Blunden, the wife of Kelly Blunden, that talked about her struggles to cope with the tragic loss of her husband.

“Every aspect of my life has been profoundly and permanently marred by the events of that sunny day in May 2015,” the mother of three said in her statement.

During her statement, Alec, who was clutching a black feather as he sat in the prisoner’s dock, wiped away tears with a Kleenex.

Whistler Mayor Nancy Wilhelm-Morden delivered a “community-impact statement” saying that the deaths of Blunden and Chafe had touched everyone in the small town of 12,000.

“Their love of the sport was legendary and their cycling skills were at the top level. Their sudden death and the manner in which they died was shocking to everyone.”

In her victim-impact statement, Lindsay Thevarage, the daughter of Pierre, said she and her dad were very close and he was her “go-to person” for everything. Shortly after her father’s death, she found life to be almost “unimaginable,” and almost lost her job.

“I buried myself in emotional pain to the point where my friends and family got extremely worried about me.”

Oh told the judge that Alec had a lengthy record that included seven criminal driving offences and numerous breaches of court orders. She said his aboriginal background included his parents attending residential schools and Alec experiencing a childhood marked by neglect, abuse and violence.

The sentencing hearing is to resume Tuesday.

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A drunk driver who killed three people including two cyclists broke down and sobbed Tuesday as emotional victim impact statements were read out in court.

In February, Samuel Michael Alec, 45, pleaded guilty to three counts of impaired driving causing the deaths of cyclists Ross Chafe, 50, and Kelly Blunden, 53, as well as Paul Pierre, 52, a close friend of Alec who was a passenger in the accused’s vehicle.

Following a period of binge drinking and with his blood alcohol level at nearly three times the legal limit for driving, Alec crossed the centre line of Highway 99 north of Pemberton and crashed head-on into the cyclists, who died on the scene. Pierre also died at the scene.

Alec’s sentencing hearing, which began on Monday, continued Tuesday in B.C. Supreme Court with more victim impact statements from the families of Chafe and Pierre.

Martina Pierre, 80, Pierre’s mother, stood at a microphone, facing Alec, and told the court that her deceased son Paul would like to extend a message to Alec, who she referred to as “Farmer.”

“I want you to carry the torch to healing and reconciliation for our First Nations people,” she said to Alec on behalf of her son. “It’s too bad that such a tragedy has come along. I am in a new country now, happy country. Let me go.”

As Pierre spoke, Alec began sobbing as he sat in the prisoner’s dock in the Vancouver courtroom.

The mother, a councillor with the Lilwat Nation, said that she also wished to speak to the Blunden and Chafe families.

“My son Paul and the Pierre family extend our love, hugs and prayers for your great loss of love ones,” she said.

“May we all heal together in the grief of our losses but also remember to pray for Farmer and those like Farmer that are dealing with addictions, drugs and being victims in a country that is known as First Nations.”

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Earlier, several members of Chafe’s family, including his wife Dr. Lizanne Bussieres, addressed the court in their victim impact statements.

“Ross was a loving husband,” Bussieres told B.C. Supreme Court Justice William Ehrcke. “He was full of energy and always so positive. He loved nature, which was the reason why we moved to Whistler.”

Bussieres, a family doctor in Whistler and a former Olympic marathoner, described her husband, also a world-class athlete, as being a devoted father to their three daughters.

“He was so proud of them. It breaks my heart thinking that they will have to grow old without the mentorship of their father.”

Crown counsel Adrienne Lee told the judge that the circumstances of the offence were “beyond tragic” and called for denunciation and deterrence.

“Paul Pierre, Kelly Blunden and Ross Chafe lost their lives and while the accused did not mean for them to lose their lives, let me make one thing clear. He meant to drink, he meant to drive. None of this had to happen. The accused is fully and entirely responsible.”

Lee said that Alec’s lengthy motor vehicle record and criminal record spoke to an “entrenched criminal offender” of almost 29 years.

“That record demonstrates a propensity to drink and drive that cries out for a sentence that will protect the public.”

The Crown has called for a prison sentence of 12 years, to be reduced by about two years after Alec receives credit for pre-sentence custody, as well as a driving ban of 15 to 18 years. The hearing is expected to continue Wednesday with defence submissions.

kfraser@postmedia.com

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