From hammer homicide mistrial to changing Travis Vader verdicts, 2016 in Edmonton courts

By Paige Parsons

Some of the most notable cases before Edmonton’s courts in 2016 involved brutal proven and alleged domestic violence — a daughter beating her mother to death with a sledgehammer, a wife stabbing her husband 40 times, and a mother charged with second-degree murder in the death of her five-year-old daughter.

The year also brought twists in two notorious cases. Richard Suter’s appeal of his sentence for failing to provide a breath sample after a restaurant patio crash that killed a child didn’t go his way. And a judge’s legal error in convicting Travis Vader for the deaths of Lyle and Marie McCann forced the judge to change his verdict from second-degree murder to manslaughter.

Here’s more on these five cases.

Mother charged with murder denied bail

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An image of Shalaina Arcand, from her funeral home obituary. She was five when she died in October 2015 from head trauma. In October 2016, her mother was charged with second-degree murder and assault with a weapon in relation to Shalaina’s death. Supplied

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Horrifying details emerged at a bail hearing on Dec. 9 for a mother charged with second-degree murder and assault with a weapon in connection with her five-year-old daughter’s death.

Lauren Lafleche, 29, was charged earlier in 2016 with second-degree murder and assault with a weapon in connection with the October 2015 death of her daughter, Shalaina Arcand. The charges weren’t laid for more than a year while investigators waited for an autopsy report that sought a second opinion from an Ontario neurologist.

Although Lafleche’s defence lawyer, Peter Royal, sought her release, arguing the young girl’s cause of death was not conclusive and his client was not a risk to the community, Crown prosecutor Laurie Trahan argued Lafleche should stay put, citing allegations of a pattern of child abuse and an attempt to flee police at the time of her arrest.

Court heard paramedics responded to a residence near 116 Avenue and 124 Street during the early morning of Oct. 13, 2015, and took Shalaina to hospital. Emergency room staff found a large bump on her forehead and extensive bruising and red marks on her body, and reported the little girl was "emaciated" and "malnourished." A radiologist also found evidence of older injuries.

Shalaina died three days later after being taken off life support. The autopsy report found extensive blunt force trauma to the head was likely the cause of death.

Trahan also said Lafleche’s two other children both told authorities their mother used to hit them, and Lafleche waited 90 minutes to call 911 on the night Shalaina was taken to hospital.

After hearing the submissions, Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Ken Nielsen denied Lafleche bail.

Woman’s failed attempts to cover up husband’s murder earns a life sentence

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Amanda Michelle McInnes, left, and husband Tye Christopher Kaye, 27. Supplied

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A woman who tied her husband to a bed, stabbed him 40 times and then tried to mislead police was sentenced to life in prison in October.

Amanda Michelle McInnes, 30, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the September 2012 death of Tye Christopher Kaye, 27.

The estranged couple was spending the weekend together in an attempt to reconcile at the time of the murder. Kaye asked his roommates to leave to give them privacy. However, McInnes told her family she was going to stay with a friend for the weekend.

Court heard McInnes prepared for the weekend by purchasing a hacksaw, a padlock, some rope and a 20-centimetre chef’s knife, as well as a bottle of vodka.

On the night of Sept. 23, 2012, Kaye’s roommates came home and discovered his blood-covered body tied to his bed.

McInnes later admitted she tied Kaye up by pretending it was for a sexual purpose. An autopsy showed she stabbed him 40 times.

To cover her tracks, the woman made anonymous 911 calls reporting suspicious activity and, the day after the killing, returned to the apartment and wrote "Murder #3 — This is not over pigs" on the walls using a red crayon.

Police discovered McInnes tried to have her phone wiped and found on her computer news articles about women who kill their partners and dozens of incriminating Internet searches, including queries about poisons, how to stab someone, how long it takes to die of a stab wound, how to dismember a body, how to tie someone up for sex, and whether police can read deleted text messages.

McInnes, who expressed remorse for her actions, will not be eligible for parole for 18 years.

Mistrial declared after emotional jury fails to come to verdict in hammer death

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Kirsten Lamb is charged with the killing of her mother, Sandra Lamb, 49, in 2010. Amanda McRoberts and Global News

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A deadlocked jury led to a mistrial in the case of an Edmonton woman diagnosed with schizophrenia who is accused of killing her mother.

Kirsten Lamb, 33, was charged with second-degree murder for the Nov. 29, 2010, killing of Sandra Lamb, 49. Court heard Sandra Lamb was found dead in her Capilano home, having been struck in the head at least 30 times with a hammer. She had multiple cuts to the neck.

Kirsten Lamb was taken into custody at the Edmonton Remand Centre, where she suffered from delusions. She was moved to the Alberta Hospital after being certified under the Mental Health Act in 2013. A jury found that Lamb was unfit to stand trial at a 2014 hearing. At the time, she was about seven-months pregnant and unable to take medication. During that hearing, she denied being mentally ill and called the case a "cover up," making claims about being a surgeon and a university dean.

When the trial went ahead in February, Lamb’s defence lawyer, Mona Duckett, argued her client had acted in self-defence after her mother attacked her first, while prosecutor Danielle Green argued Lamb killed her mother out of "rage, not fear."

However, when it came time for the verdict, the jury was deadlocked. Multiple jurors broke down crying during deliberations, and could reach no consensus despite being given a "cooling off period." Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Paul Belzil declared a mistrial and ordered Lamb to be remanded into custody at Alberta Hospital until a new trial is scheduled.

Richard Suter’s appeal doesn’t go his way

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Richard Suter and his wife Gayska. Shaughn Butts / Postmedia

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In August, the Alberta Court of Appeal tossed Richard Suter’s appeal of his four-month sentence for crashing his SUV into a restaurant patio and killing a toddler, instead accepting the crown’s appeal that the sentence was "unfit." The court handed him a harsher sentence of 26 months.

Suter was originally sentenced on Dec. 17, 2015, after earlier pleading guilty to refusing to provide a breath sample where a death ensued. The appeal court said that the sentencing judge erred in not finding Suter morally culpable for the refusal.

An agreed statement of facts said that Suter’s Acura SUV went over a curb on May 19, 2013, through a glass barrier and into a table where two-year-old Geo Mounsef was sitting with his parents and brother at Ric’s Grill, pinning Geo against a wall and causing his death.

Suter has since filed an appeal of his longer sentence with the Supreme Court of Canada.

Meanwhile, the man convicted of kidnapping Suter and chopping off his thumb in retribution for the young boy’s death was handed a 12-year prison term in November.

Steven (Diamond) Vollrath, 33, was earlier convicted of kidnapping, aggravated assault, impersonating police and possession of a dangerous weapon in connection with the Jan. 22, 2015, abduction. During proceedings, Suter testified he was forcibly taken from his Riverbend home by three men posing as police officers and driven to an isolated area, where he was forced to kneel in the snow before his thumb was chopped off with pruning shears.

Provincial court Judge Elizabeth Johnson noted while delivering the sentence that the violent offence was "planned and deliberate" and motivated by a "heinous" reason, that being "to extract vengeance by inflicting serious harm."

Conclusion of McCann murder case put off into 2017

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Marie and Lyle McCann celebrating a family Christmas in 2006. Supplied

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More than six years after the disappearance of St. Albert grandparents Lyle and Marie McCann, the case against their convicted killer is still grinding through the courts.

The couple, ages 77 and 78, disappeared on July 3, 2010, while driving to B.C. for a family camping holiday. Their motorhome was found ablaze two days later at a campground near Edson while the SUV they towed was discovered in the woods July 16. Their bodies have never been found.

Travis Vader, 44, was later arrested and charged with first-degree murder in connection to the McCanns’ disappearance. He has maintained his innocence throughout the investigation and court proceedings.

Vader was first charged with the killings in April 2012, but the charges were stayed in March 2014, just a few weeks before the case was to go before a jury, when the Crown realized the RCMP hadn’t disclosed all evidence to the defence. The charges were re-laid on Dec. 19, 2014.

Vader’s lawyer, Brian Beresh, made an abuse of process application, arguing the stay was used to buy more time to collect evidence against Vader. In late January, Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Denny Thomas denied the application, but said it was a "very close call."

The long-awaited trial began in early March, during which the defence argued various theories, including that a deceased man was the real suspect, and that the McCanns aren’t actually dead. Vader, out on interim release, also faced a bail review after showing up late to the trial four times. The trial wrapped up in June, but Vader made headlines again in July when his bail was revoked for allegedly breaching his release conditions.

The judge granted a media application to live-broadcast his verdict on Sept. 15. As soon as Thomas read out his decision convicting Vader on two counts of second-degree murder, legal scholars pointed out the decision relied on a defunct section of the Criminal Code. Weeks later, Vader’s lawyer argued for a mistrial, but Thomas opted to vacate his murder finding and instead convicted Vader of two counts of manslaughter.

Vader’s lengthy sentencing hearing, where he took the stand himself to argue that his constitutional rights were violated throughout the police investigation and court case, dragged into mid-December, and will resume for one final day on Jan. 3 before Thomas is expected to make his decision.