Court

TAYLOR TRIAL: Jurors will hear final arguments next week before deliberating verdict

KAMLOOPS - Both the Crown and the defence have finished presenting their evidence in the Damien Taylor murder trial in Kamloops and jurors will hear closing submissions from lawyers next week. Taylor is charged with second-degree murder in the death of his girlfriend CJ Fowler. The 16-year-old’s body was found December 5, 2012 near a...

Guilty verdict for dangerous driver who hit Vernon firefighter with truck

VERNON - A man has been found guilty of hitting a North Okanagan firefighter with his truck. Ian Douglas Burns, 28, was convicted of dangerous driving causing bodily harm in connection with the June 26, 2013 incident this week in Vernon Provincial Court. The victim, Stephan Hidasi, a firefighter with the BX/Swan Lake Fire Department,...

Lumby murder trial rescheduled for 2016

VERNON - A Lumby man accused of murdering a local teacher will stand trial in the spring of 2016. Howard Everett Krewson, 55, faces one count of second degree murder in relation to the death of his 51-year-old girlfriend, Linda Ross, a teacher at the Vernon School District’s Alternative Learning Program. Krewson’s trial was scheduled...

SNELSON: How the sentence for a Kelowna killer breaks down

IS IT 11 YEARS, SIX YEARS OR ONE YEAR? HOW ABOUT ALL OF THE ABOVE KAMLOOPS — Convicted killer Neil Snelson was arrested in 2009, sentenced yesterday to 11 years in prison and will likely be released around this time next year. Makes complete sense, right? A jury convicted him earlier this summer of the...

SNELSON TRIAL UPDATE: Kelowna killer sentenced; only 19 months left to serve

KAMLOOPS - It took two trials and nearly 22 years for the case and the jail doors to close on Jennifer Cusworth’s killer, but it will only be one year and seven months before his release. Neil George Snelson, 48, was sentenced to 11 years today, Sept. 16, in Kamloops Supreme Court. Since he was...

Vernon men charged with murder return to court

VERNON - A pair of local men accused in the murder of 42-year-old Jason Hardy were in Vernon Provincial Court again this week. Brandon Joseph Clayton Wellington, 18, and Tal Kalum La Riviere, 28, both face second degree murder charges in relation to Hardy’s death. A 14-year-old Greater Vernon boy, whose name is protected under...

Vernon judge ruffles feathers by refusing to sentence alleged fraudster

"I CAN’T BE THROWING PEOPLE IN JAIL WHO SAY ‘I DIDN’T DO IT’" VERNON - A bit of courthouse drama unfolded at the Vernon Law Courts Monday when a judge refused to sentence an accused fraudster on charges she wouldn’t admit to committing. Desiree Dorothy Pelletier is charged with forgery, theft of $5,000 or under...

Acquitted Kamloops RCMP officer still awaiting internal conduct hearing

KAMLOOPS - It’s been nearly one year since his trial and five years since the event which took him to trial, yet Kamloops RCMP Cpl. Rick Brown has yet to have a conduct hearing from his employer. Brown was acquitted on a breach of trust charge in October of last year. Despite his acquittal, he...

JAIL SEX TRIAL: Judge will decide if RCMP officer’s actions were criminal

KAMLOOPS – It is up to a Kamloops Supreme Court Justice to determine if a crime was committed in the early morning hours of August 18, 2010 now that submissions from both lawyers have concluded in the trial of an RCMP watch commander. Kenneth Peter Rick Brown was charged with breach of trust after he,...

JAIL SEX TRIAL: ‘It was a very tense and uncomfortable environment:’ guard

KAMLOOPS – A former jail guard told a Kamloops Supreme Courtroom this morning his workplace was like a zoo and there was nothing he could do about separating two female prisoners having sex because there were no empty cells available. David Tompkins was one of the RCMP city cell guards working the early morning hours...

JAIL SEX TRIAL: The one-and-a-half minute party

KAMLOOPS – One of the guards who worked during an August 2010 incident in city cells told a Kamloops Supreme courtroom Friday morning he was frustrated when he did not receive direction on how to split up two female prisoners having sex. Kevin Brumm was a relatively new guard at the Kamloops RCMP city cells,...

JAIL SEX TRIAL UPDATE: Officers react to what happened in the cell that night

GRAPHIC CONTENT ADVISORY KAMLOOPS – Video evidence in the jail sex trial concluded Wednesday allowing a Kamloops Supreme Court Justice to see exactly what police officers saw that night in Kamloops city cells—and how officers reacted to it. Cpl. Kenneth Peter "Rick" Brown, an RCMP watch commander, is accused of breaching trust in August of...

SNELSON TRIAL: Killer’s sentence depends on finding of sexual assault argument

KAMLOOPS —It’s been almost 22 years since the night Neil Snelson killed college student Jennifer Cusworth after a party in Kelowna in 1993 and now Cusworth's family has one week left to find out how long he'll spend in prison. The 19-year-old Cusworth was found dead in a ditch on Swamp Road in Kelowna in...