Saturday, Dec 24, 2011 06:00 am

By: Kevin Ma

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  Travis Vader

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The only named suspect in the case of the disappearance of Lyle and Marie McCann has received a one-day sentence for unrelated crimes, in part due to the publicity surrounding that case.

Travis Edward Vader, 39, was sentenced to one day in jail for a string of crimes committed near Whitecourt in December of 2009. Vader is the only named suspect in the disappearance of the McCanns, who were last seen near a gas bar in St. Albert in July, 2010. They have since been declared legally dead. He has not been charged in relation to that disappearance.

Vader was tried and convicted of two counts of breaking and entering, two counts of driving while disqualified, one count of possession of stolen property and one count of arson in a trial before Edmonton’s Court of Queen’s Bench. Justice Joanne Veit delivered her sentence Thursday.

Veit ruled that although these crimes were unrelated to the McCann investigation, the publicity surrounding it made his time in jail unusually harsh. He was held in near-solitary confinement for several months, and had his belongings thrown out by guards. Vader alleged during his trial that he had been attacked by guards as well.

While she would ordinarily sentence Vader to 33.5 months for his crimes, Veit determined that he should receive 1,005 days credit for the roughly 470 days he had spent in jail awaiting trial. That reduced his sentence to one day, deemed served by his court appearance.

Veit arrived at that number by giving Vader more than 1.5 days credit for each day he spent in pre-trial custody. Although the Truth in Sentencing Act prevents judges from doing this, Vader committed these crimes before that law took effect, so Veit determined that it did not apply in this case.

Speaking outside the court, Crown prosecutor Michelle Doyle said this does not mean that Vader is a free man. Vader has been denied bail and will remain in jail until he is tried this April on other matters.

Daniel Mol, Vader’s lawyer, praised Veit outside of court for her "well reasoned decision," noting that his client had been imprisoned without trial for almost two years for a property crime. "He’s glad to be able to trust the courts."

Sentence debate

Vader’s crimes occurred near Whitecourt from Dec. 4 to 8, 2009, the court heard. Vader broke into a commercial yard and stole a $60,000 company truck. He later broke into a residential yard and tried to steal a trailer, but left when confronted by the owner. He then set the truck on fire prior to his arrest.

Vader was jailed for about two months before he was released on bail. He was arrested in July 2010 in connection with other charges from Barrhead, Evansburg and British Columbia and has been in jail ever since.

Prior to his second arrest, police named him as a person of interest in the disappearance of the McCanns and widely publicized his name and face. "It wasn’t done out of meanness or malfeasance," Veit said, but it did make other prisoners hostile towards him. Guards essentially put him in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day to protect him — a measure normally reserved for very dangerous offenders.

"Mr. Vader didn’t deserve to be there, but he was there," Veit said. His long pre-trial confinement did not help rehabilitate him (as remand centres generally do not offer rehabilitative programs), and was far longer than the norm of 17 days.

"These long delays are not useful," she said. "Parliament expected that people would have relatively quick trials."

Vader is now being held at the Edmonton Remand Centre. He has been ordered to submit a DNA sample to the national databank.