Post by ocelot on Dec 9, 2007 17:57:38 GMT -5
Robert Pickton found guilty of six counts of second-degree murder
9 Dec, 4:39 PM
NEW WESTMINSTER, B.C. - There were gasps, then muffled cheers as Robert Pickton was found guilty Sunday of six counts of second-degree murder.
Family members of the six women fled the courthouse in tears, running into the courtyard to huddle near a Christmas tree hung with lace angels representing their loved ones.
Greg Garley, whose foster sister Mona Wilson was among Pickton's victims, told the The Canadian Press in his first interview after the verdict that his whole family was ecstatic
"We knew it. We knew that he was guilty. And now the province knows it. And now the whole world knows it."
Garley said he feels like a burden's been lifted off his shoulders.
Pickton was facing trial for killing Wilson, Georgina Papin, Marnie Frey, Brenda Wolfe, Sereena Abotsway and Andrea Joesbury.
The jurors responded not guilty to each charge of first-degree murder, causing tense family members to draw in their breath sharply.
But when the jury announced guilty verdicts on the lesser charge of second-degree murder, family members quietly rejoiced.
Pickton stood in the prisoner's box, flanked by his lead lawyers. He bowed his head and looked at the ground while the verdicts were read, but he showed no emotion.
Lead Crown prosecutor Mike Petrie removed his glasses and put them back on his nose several times, but otherwise showed no reaction to the verdict.
The verdicts mean Pickton will still face a life sentence, but he could be eligible for parole in 10 years rather than the automatic 25 years a first-degree conviction calls for.
Jurors had no recommendation on parole eligibility and court was adjourned until Tuesday when sentencing will be decided and victim impact statements will be read.
Justice James Williams commended the five women and seven men of the jury for spending 10 months hearing evidence and then a further 10 days deliberating.
"Over the last long long time - it's a year now - while carrying out your obligations, you've represented the people of Canada in this very important task and on their behalf, I want to offer you my most sincere thank you," Williams said.
"You know now what an enormous responsibility it is to judge your fellow man and you have performed this task admirably in my view."
Pickton is also charged with a further 20 counts and that trial is to get underway later.
Gladys Radeck, who described herself as a support worker for family members, was disappointed in the verdict.
"I don't think justice was served. It should have been first-degree," she said.
But she added: "The jury did the best they could. They had a lot on their minds. he will be in jail for the rest of his life."
When court adjourned, a crush of photographers and reporters flowed into the courtyard.
Family members stood in a silent circle, holding lit candles. Support worker Elaine Allen read a poem about the women and a song written by Victoria poet Susan Musgrave about the women was played.
Some of those in the circle sobbed.
Murray Watson, who was a friend of one of those other 20 women, said the verdict was overwhelming and it leaves many of the families asking the million-dollar question: Will there be a second trial?
Anticipation about the verdict had been building since Thursday, when jurors asked the judge whether they could find Pickton guilty if they concluded he acted indirectly in the killing.
Family members of the murdered women had been staked out for 10 days, along with reporters, waiting for a decision.
When word the verdict was coming was announced, they entered the courtroom shaking.
In his final summation, Crown prosecutor Mike Petrie urged jurors not to let Pickton "put one over on them."
He said all of the evidence - beyond a reasonable doubt - pointed to Pickton being responsible for the deaths of the six.
The Crown's evidence was among the most grisly ever aired in a Canadian courtroom.
One witness, Scott Chubb, testified that Pickton told him a good way to kill a junkie is to inject her with windshield washer fluid. The Crown called a forensic investigator who testified a syringe filled with windshield washer fluid was found at the farm.
Another witness, Andrew Bellwood, testified Pickton once pantomimed how he would have sex with the women, handcuff them from behind, kill and dismember them, then feed their remains to his pigs.
Police found the personal effects of some of the women named on the murder indictment in Pickton's trailer and in some of the buildings on the Pickton farm in the Vancouver suburb of Port Coquitlam.
Among the findings were handcuffs and handcuff keys and a gun fitted with a dildo.
Lynn Ellingsen testified she was at Pickton's trailer one night and while high on drugs, she wandered into the slaughterhouse to see him butchering a woman.
Forensic investigators testified about finding the badly decomposed heads of three of the women on the farm. The skulls had been bisected lengthwise and the women's severed hands and feet had been placed inside.
Two partial jawbones and some handbones were also found.
The Crown's witnesses fell into three categories.
There were the forensic and crime-scene investigators, who gave an often-laboured detailing of the evidence found on Pickton's farm and the buildings he lived and worked in.
Their dry recitations stood in stark contrast to the gruesome details of the body parts found on the farm.
Then there were the police interrogators who questioned Pickton in two 11-hour interviews.
In the peep-hole, hidden-camera footage of Pickton's ramblings with an undercover officer placed in his cell, Pickton mentioned he "got sloppy" and suggested he got caught having killed only 49 of the 50 he planned.
He also suggested he'd wait a while, then go for another 25.
In the 11-hour interrogation by police, he mentioned: "You're making me out to be more of a mass murderer than I really am."
But Pickton's defence lawyers dismissed the statements the Crown called incriminating, saying the police manipulated a simple, unintelligent man into parroting back their own suggestions.
The number 50, the defence argued, was planted in Pickton's brain by police, not by anything he actually did.
The defence also strafed the Pickton acquaintances who testified, noting their criminal records and drug addictions.
The judge added his voice, telling jurors Friday to be careful about accepting the evidence of Bellwood and Ellingsen.
"It would be unsafe for you to rely on their evidence alone," Williams said as he wrapped up his charge to jurors.
"They admitted to criminal convictions and generally have unsavoury reputations because of other discreditable or bad conduct."
Williams also cited their drug use and the fact they received financial benefit from police.
He reminded them that while Ellingsen testified she saw Papin's body hanging from a hook in Pickton's slaughterhouse, she also admitted she was high on drugs at the time.
Williams also said statements she and Bellwood gave before the trial differed from their testimony here.
The judge told the jurors they could rely on their evidence even if it is not confirmed by another witness or other evidence but it is unsafe for them to do so.
Pickton's lawyers also repeatedly suggested someone other than Pickton could have been responsible for the deaths.
The farm was a hive of activity by unsavoury people, including three people who were arrested but never charged in the case.
Defence lawyers continually pointed their fingers in the direction of Pat Casanova and Dinah Taylor.
Pickton's brother Dave was never arrested by police, but the defence brought his name up often.
"The evidence of Willie's association with the six women ranges from the non-existent to the minimal," said defence lawyer Adrian Brooks in the defence's final summation.
Williams told jurors that even if they believed Pickton acted "in concert" with other people, if they believed that Pickton was involved beyond a reasonable doubt, they must find him guilty.
9 Dec, 4:39 PM
NEW WESTMINSTER, B.C. - There were gasps, then muffled cheers as Robert Pickton was found guilty Sunday of six counts of second-degree murder.
Family members of the six women fled the courthouse in tears, running into the courtyard to huddle near a Christmas tree hung with lace angels representing their loved ones.
Greg Garley, whose foster sister Mona Wilson was among Pickton's victims, told the The Canadian Press in his first interview after the verdict that his whole family was ecstatic
"We knew it. We knew that he was guilty. And now the province knows it. And now the whole world knows it."
Garley said he feels like a burden's been lifted off his shoulders.
Pickton was facing trial for killing Wilson, Georgina Papin, Marnie Frey, Brenda Wolfe, Sereena Abotsway and Andrea Joesbury.
The jurors responded not guilty to each charge of first-degree murder, causing tense family members to draw in their breath sharply.
But when the jury announced guilty verdicts on the lesser charge of second-degree murder, family members quietly rejoiced.
Pickton stood in the prisoner's box, flanked by his lead lawyers. He bowed his head and looked at the ground while the verdicts were read, but he showed no emotion.
Lead Crown prosecutor Mike Petrie removed his glasses and put them back on his nose several times, but otherwise showed no reaction to the verdict.
The verdicts mean Pickton will still face a life sentence, but he could be eligible for parole in 10 years rather than the automatic 25 years a first-degree conviction calls for.
Jurors had no recommendation on parole eligibility and court was adjourned until Tuesday when sentencing will be decided and victim impact statements will be read.
Justice James Williams commended the five women and seven men of the jury for spending 10 months hearing evidence and then a further 10 days deliberating.
"Over the last long long time - it's a year now - while carrying out your obligations, you've represented the people of Canada in this very important task and on their behalf, I want to offer you my most sincere thank you," Williams said.
"You know now what an enormous responsibility it is to judge your fellow man and you have performed this task admirably in my view."
Pickton is also charged with a further 20 counts and that trial is to get underway later.
Gladys Radeck, who described herself as a support worker for family members, was disappointed in the verdict.
"I don't think justice was served. It should have been first-degree," she said.
But she added: "The jury did the best they could. They had a lot on their minds. he will be in jail for the rest of his life."
When court adjourned, a crush of photographers and reporters flowed into the courtyard.
Family members stood in a silent circle, holding lit candles. Support worker Elaine Allen read a poem about the women and a song written by Victoria poet Susan Musgrave about the women was played.
Some of those in the circle sobbed.
Murray Watson, who was a friend of one of those other 20 women, said the verdict was overwhelming and it leaves many of the families asking the million-dollar question: Will there be a second trial?
Anticipation about the verdict had been building since Thursday, when jurors asked the judge whether they could find Pickton guilty if they concluded he acted indirectly in the killing.
Family members of the murdered women had been staked out for 10 days, along with reporters, waiting for a decision.
When word the verdict was coming was announced, they entered the courtroom shaking.
In his final summation, Crown prosecutor Mike Petrie urged jurors not to let Pickton "put one over on them."
He said all of the evidence - beyond a reasonable doubt - pointed to Pickton being responsible for the deaths of the six.
The Crown's evidence was among the most grisly ever aired in a Canadian courtroom.
One witness, Scott Chubb, testified that Pickton told him a good way to kill a junkie is to inject her with windshield washer fluid. The Crown called a forensic investigator who testified a syringe filled with windshield washer fluid was found at the farm.
Another witness, Andrew Bellwood, testified Pickton once pantomimed how he would have sex with the women, handcuff them from behind, kill and dismember them, then feed their remains to his pigs.
Police found the personal effects of some of the women named on the murder indictment in Pickton's trailer and in some of the buildings on the Pickton farm in the Vancouver suburb of Port Coquitlam.
Among the findings were handcuffs and handcuff keys and a gun fitted with a dildo.
Lynn Ellingsen testified she was at Pickton's trailer one night and while high on drugs, she wandered into the slaughterhouse to see him butchering a woman.
Forensic investigators testified about finding the badly decomposed heads of three of the women on the farm. The skulls had been bisected lengthwise and the women's severed hands and feet had been placed inside.
Two partial jawbones and some handbones were also found.
The Crown's witnesses fell into three categories.
There were the forensic and crime-scene investigators, who gave an often-laboured detailing of the evidence found on Pickton's farm and the buildings he lived and worked in.
Their dry recitations stood in stark contrast to the gruesome details of the body parts found on the farm.
Then there were the police interrogators who questioned Pickton in two 11-hour interviews.
In the peep-hole, hidden-camera footage of Pickton's ramblings with an undercover officer placed in his cell, Pickton mentioned he "got sloppy" and suggested he got caught having killed only 49 of the 50 he planned.
He also suggested he'd wait a while, then go for another 25.
In the 11-hour interrogation by police, he mentioned: "You're making me out to be more of a mass murderer than I really am."
But Pickton's defence lawyers dismissed the statements the Crown called incriminating, saying the police manipulated a simple, unintelligent man into parroting back their own suggestions.
The number 50, the defence argued, was planted in Pickton's brain by police, not by anything he actually did.
The defence also strafed the Pickton acquaintances who testified, noting their criminal records and drug addictions.
The judge added his voice, telling jurors Friday to be careful about accepting the evidence of Bellwood and Ellingsen.
"It would be unsafe for you to rely on their evidence alone," Williams said as he wrapped up his charge to jurors.
"They admitted to criminal convictions and generally have unsavoury reputations because of other discreditable or bad conduct."
Williams also cited their drug use and the fact they received financial benefit from police.
He reminded them that while Ellingsen testified she saw Papin's body hanging from a hook in Pickton's slaughterhouse, she also admitted she was high on drugs at the time.
Williams also said statements she and Bellwood gave before the trial differed from their testimony here.
The judge told the jurors they could rely on their evidence even if it is not confirmed by another witness or other evidence but it is unsafe for them to do so.
Pickton's lawyers also repeatedly suggested someone other than Pickton could have been responsible for the deaths.
The farm was a hive of activity by unsavoury people, including three people who were arrested but never charged in the case.
Defence lawyers continually pointed their fingers in the direction of Pat Casanova and Dinah Taylor.
Pickton's brother Dave was never arrested by police, but the defence brought his name up often.
"The evidence of Willie's association with the six women ranges from the non-existent to the minimal," said defence lawyer Adrian Brooks in the defence's final summation.
Williams told jurors that even if they believed Pickton acted "in concert" with other people, if they believed that Pickton was involved beyond a reasonable doubt, they must find him guilty.