2017-12-29 Triage and trials: top 10 Edmonton court stories of 2017 | Edmonton Journal
Published by Bretton McCann,
Triage and trials: Top 10 Edmonton court stories of 2017
A look back at the top 10 Edmonton court stories that made headlines in 2017.
Published on: December 29, 2017 | Last Updated: December 29, 2017 4:36 PM MST
Upended decisions and expectations marked some of the biggest court cases of 2017 — from an overturned murder acquittal, to a judge tacking an extra year onto a securities fraudster’s sentence, to the striking down of the province’s roadside licence suspension law. But the function of the justice system itself also captured headlines. Overburdened courts struggled to cope with crushing delays, and politicians called for reform after shocking revelations about the jailing of a sexual assault victim.
Here’s more on the year’s Top 10 stories.
1. Jayme Pasieka’s jury trial
A jury convicted Pasieka of two counts of first-degree murder and four counts each of attempted murder and aggravated assault following a spring trial for the 2014 deadly stabbing spree at a west Edmonton warehouse. During the two-week trial, the jury heard evidence about the horror experienced by dozens of employees at the Loblaw warehouse, where Pasieka worked, when he showed up for his shift dressed in a military style and began calmly stalking his colleagues, stabbing six people who crossed his path. But evidence was also presented about Pasieka’s schizophrenia. His lawyer argued that he wasn’t able to form intent and should be found guilty of manslaughter. Pasieka was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years in April.
2. Crown prosecutors forced to triage cases
The city’s chief Crown prosecutor walked into a provincial courtroom in February and stayed 15 cases because her office lacked the resources to handle them. As courts across Alberta struggled to manage a major case backlog, and an under-resourced justice system was under new pressure from Supreme Court-imposed deadlines on criminal trial wait times, prosecutors were ordered to adopt a "triage" process that encourages them to focus on cases that have better chances of succeeding and to prioritize more serious offences, abandoning others.
3. Travis Vader finally sentenced
Vader was sentenced to life in prison in January for the manslaughter deaths of Lyle and Marie McCann, a St. Albert couple in their 70s who disappeared in 2010. But even after a lengthy investigation and court process, which included an error in sentencing that forced the trial judge to vacate two second-degree murder convictions and replace them with manslaughter convictions, the McCann family still doesn’t know the whereabouts of their parents’ remains. Vader avowed his innocence at his sentencing hearing and his lawyers have filed an appeal.
4. Jailed sexual assault victim
The province’s justice minister ordered an investigation in June after revelations that a sexual assault complainant was shackled in court and kept in custody for five nights in the Edmonton Remand Centre — the same institution where Lance David Blanchard, the man who was later convicted of violently attacking her, was being held. The identity of the woman, who died in an unrelated incident, remains protected by a publication ban. The Crown will argue Blanchard should be declared a dangerous offender during a 2018 hearing.
5. Cindy Gladue’s accused killer to be re-tried
The Ontario truck driver acquitted of murder in Gladue’s 2011 death will be re-tried after a scathing June ruling from the Court of Appeal of Alberta that criticized the way Canadian juries are instructed in cases related to sexual assault. Gladue was found dead in an Edmonton motel room due to injuries to her vagina after what her accused killer, Bradley Barton, described as a rough sexual encounter. The appeal court found there were several "significant" errors during the trial, including a reliance on myths and stereotypes about sexual activity and consent, and improperly informing the jury about its ability to find Barton guilty of the lesser offence of manslaughter. Barton’s new trial is scheduled to begin in February 2019, although his lawyer has applied for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court.
6. Civil allegations emerge in shocking road rage case
After tips to police led to the arrest of Jared Eliasson as the suspect in a violent road rage attack in March, in which a 34-year-old woman had her arms broken by a man who beat her with a crowbar, civil court documents revealed the suspect had been accused of a similar attack by his former friends. Eliasson, 29, was the victim of random stabbing in 2014. In the months that followed, his friends allege in a restraining order application that he engaged in an escalating pattern of harassment, including smashing their neighbour’s car window with a crowbar. Eliasson was released on bail in December to await his 2019 trial.
7. Roadside licence suspension law struck down
The ability to immediately suspend licences of suspected drunk drivers was struck down as unconstitutional by the province’s top court in May. In a 2-1 majority decision, the Court of Appeal of Alberta overturned the 2011 legislation that allowed police to suspend licences at roadside. Writing for the majority, Justice Frans Slatter called the underlying philosophy of the law "offensive to Canadian constitutional values," noting drivers found innocent can still lose their licence for a lengthy period of time, and that the law may encourage innocent people to plead guilty in hopes of getting their licence back more quickly. The court gave the province one year to implement changes.
8. Jay Peers sentenced for Ponzi scheme
The former financial adviser was sentenced to 3-1/2 years in prison in June for convictions related to the 2010 collapse of an elaborate securities fraud that saw roughly $80 million of investors’ money disappear. Peers was charged under the Alberta Securities Act, and, although he pleaded guilty to 11 charges, he ended up appealing his own plea, arguing he should have had a right to a jury trial. The matter went to the Supreme Court of Canada, where it was rejected. When it came time for sentencing, provincial court Judge Fred Day went beyond the prosecutor’s sentencing submission of 2-1/2 years, tacking on an extra year. Day called Peers a "con man" when he ordered him imprisoned. The fallen financier appealed the sentence, but that application was rejected in December.
9. Richard Suter appeals sentence at Supreme Court
A man who crashed his SUV into a restaurant patio, killing a toddler, argued his sentence of 26 months should be reduced before Canada’s top court in October. Suter was originally sentenced to four months, plus a 30-month driving suspension, after pleading guilty to a charge of refusing to provide a breath sample following a collision that caused the death of two-year-old Geo Mounsef in 2013. The case sparked public outrage and an act of vigilante justice — Suter was kidnapped, beaten and had his thumb chopped off. The Crown appealed in Alberta, which resulted in a considerably lengthened sentence. Suter was released on bail pending the Supreme Court decision, which was reserved.
10. Gangster sentenced for third homicide conviction
A full-patch member of a gang responsible for a bloody burst of violence across Alberta and Saskatchewan in 2012 was sentenced for his third homicide conviction in November. White Boy Posse gang member Joshua Petrin was sentenced to 10 years in prison for the manslaughter of Bryan Gower, a term that will be served consecutively to another 10-year sentence for the killing of Mitchell Chambers, but concurrently to the life sentence he’s already serving for his first-degree murder conviction for ordering the hit that led to the mistaken identity killing of Lorry Ann Santos, a Saskatoon mother of four. Two of Petrin’s associates were also convicted in a grisly murder that involved a man’s head and body being discovered in separate locations, although Petrin was never charged in that crime.
