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Court
“Your bomb-making days are over:” Judge
PENTICTON - A Penticton man who made a pipe bomb that accidentally exploded in June will pay a fine, rather than serve time in prison. Matthew Steven Nason, born in 1976, was charged with making an explosive and dangerously storing firearms. The homemade pipe bomb he constructed using “highly volatile explosives” exploded on June 5,...
UPDATE: Jury hears of body’s discovery in Thompson River in 11-year-old murder case
COARSE LANGUAGE, GRAPHIC CONTENT ADVISORY KAMLOOPS – A crime scene investigator told a Kamloops jury he observed open head wounds when he found the decomposing body of a woman in the Thompson River near Indian Point in August 2003. “There were injuries to the skull.... The body was floating and (was) up against the upstream...
Crown will not appeal RCMP officer’s acquittal in jail sex case
KAMLOOPS – A four-year-old case is now closed after B.C.’s Court of Appeal did not receive an application from the Crown office to challenge the acquittal of a police officer originally charged with breach of trust. Winston Sayson with the Surrey Crown office confirmed Monday afternoon that there was no appeal application made within the...
Murder re-trial begins with recorded confession from accused
GRAPHIC CONTENT ADVISORY KAMLOOPS – The re-trial for a Kamloops man accused of beating his girlfriend to death began in Kamloops Supreme Court Wednesday afternoon with a confession he allegedly made to an undercover police officer posing as a crime boss. In 2007, Robert Donald Balbar met with several undercover police officers for nearly three...
Oliver man to serve weekends for assault with a weapon
PENTICTON - An Oliver man who entered a home in Okanagan Falls and beat the residents with a crow bar because of an alleged sexual assault, will spend 90 days in jail every weekend until his 90 days are up. Robert David Delve, born in 1979, pleaded guilty to one count of assault with a...
Forged prescription for painkillers lands accused in jail for one day
PENTICTON - A local man who pleaded guilty to using a forged prescription got off with a one-day jail sentence and never had to leave the Penticton Courthouse. Alexander Milne, 60, was caught on March 3, 2014 trying to get a prescription filled using a forged document. Milne, who suffers from an auto-immune deficiency had...
Kelowna lawyer fined $10,000 for these two words
LAWYER AND COP SQUARED OFF IN COURTHOUSE Language advisory KELOWNA - A local lawyer is paying a hefty price for a heated exchange with a police officer while trying to resolve a case in the Kelowna Law Courts in 2011. Marty Johnson, who practices criminal defence and personal injury law, was suspended from practicing law...
City and RCMP open to policy changes following jury recommendations
PENTICTON - The City and RCMP are actively considering implementation of recommendations made by a jury following a coroner’s inquest into the death of 30-year-old Steven J. Scott who died in police custody two years ago. The RCMP have already implemented some changes after Scott’s death that the jury also recommended be made. One suggestion...
Vernon child sexual predator gets 4 years in prison
VERNON – A Vernon man who lured girls over the Internet and asked them for nude photos is going to spend the next four years in a federal prison. David Clayton Willerth, 40, was sentenced in Vernon Supreme Court Thursday on 18 counts, including luring children with a computer and arranging a sexual offense against...
Investigation of alleged assault by Penticton police officer dismissed
PENTICTON - No charges will be laid against a police officer who allegedly assaulted a woman while she was in custody. An investigation conducted by the Independent Investigations Office “concluded there is no substantial likelihood that the officer … would be convicted of any offences arising from the circumstances.” In April 2014, an officer was...
ARCHER: The importance of being a jury member
I spent three days this week at the Penticton courthouse sitting in on a coroner’s inquest for the death of a 30-year-old man, Steven Joseph Scott, who died two years ago while in police custody. I had never been to an inquest before and was happily surprised to find the five-person jury and all the...
Jury finds death accidental, makes recommendations
'STUDY THE FEASIBILITY OF ESTABLISHING AN ALCOHOL DETOXIFICATION CENTRE IN THE SOUTH OKANAGAN' PENTICTON - The coroner’s inquest on the death of Steven J. Scott who died two years ago while in police custody has ended with recommendations from a five-person jury on how to improve conditions to avoid a similar incident in the future....
CORONER’S INQUEST: Penticton lacking substance abuse resources and police manpower
PENTICTON - The need for more rehabilitation resources and police manpower were the running themes of this morning’s testimonies made during the coroner’s inquest on the death of Steven J. Scott who died in a cell at the Penticton RCMP detachment two years ago. Patricia Gartner, a social worker at the Penticton Regional Hospital oversaw...
Cause of in-custody death related to alcohol withdrawal: Pathologist
PENTICTON - The cause of death of Steven J. Scott, who died in a cell at the Penticton RCMP detachment two years ago, was determined to be a breathing problem related to alcohol withdrawal. Dr. William R. Currie, a now-retired pathologist at the Penticton Regional Hospital performed the autopsy of Scott, 30, who was found...
Admitted child pornographer opts to start sentence early
KELOWNA - A man who admits to making child pornography in 2007 and 2008 has opted to go into custody early. David Gerald Smart, 42, pleaded guilty to making and possessing child pornography in Kelowna and Cranbrook between Nov. 1, 2007 and Jan. 31, 2008. Charged in August 2013, Smart was granted bail and released, but on Tuesday...
What a Vernon sex offender learned from his last conviction
CROWN WANTS CHILD LURER TO SPEND 6-7 YEARS BEHIND BARS AFTER GUILTY PLEA VERNON - Planned and predatory are the words Crown counsel used to describe the actions of a man who lured Okanagan girls over the Internet and asked them for nude photographs. David Clayton Willerth, born in 1974, pleaded guilty to 18 of...
Officer may have overlooked dead prisoner in early morning checks
PENTICTON - Video surveilance footage from the holding cell in which Steven J. Scott died two years ago shows he was possibly dead during early-morning checks. The coroner’s inquest for Steven Joseph Scott, a 30-year-old man who died in a Penticton RCMP detachment cell in August 2012 continued today with testimony from the watch commander...
Coroner’s inquest begins for man who died in holding cells
PENTICTON - A B.C. Coroners inquest into the death of a Penticton man who died in RCMP cells two years ago heard this morning the man had diabetes. The inquest, which began Monday at the Penticton law courts before coroner Larry Marzinzik will likely take the remainder of the week. Steven Joseph Scott, 30, died...
Vernon man facing luring, child porn charges to be sentenced
VERNON - A Vernon man facing luring and child pornography charges will be sentenced this week. David Clayton Willerth, born in 1974, is charged with 25 counts, including luring children under 16 by computer, making or publishing child pornography, and invitation to sexual touching of a person under 16. Willerth’s lawyer, David Johnson, appeared in...
Murder victim was a popular employee of Kelowna Flightcraft
KELOWNA - The man killed in what police are calling an unprovoked attack on a city bus last week is being remembered by coworkers as a popular, unique man dedicated to his job. Before he was murdered on a bus on Baron Road last Thursday, Caesar Rosales, 55, was a business systems analyst for Kelowna...
Here’s your second chance to learn about a position with the justice department
OKANAGAN - Three additional orientation sessions have been scheduled for Okanagan residents interested in one of 240 correctional officer positions at the new Okanagan Correctional Centre set to open in Oliver in 2016. The original sessions were well-received and due to high-demand additional sessions have been scheduled throughout November. The first will be held at...
Three years in jail for dangerous driving killing two passengers
"I WOULD BE REMISS IF I DID NOT EMPHASIZE THE DISASTROUS CONSEQUENCES OF MR. FEDAN'S ACTIONS." KAMLOOPS – Moral blameworthiness was the principle a Kamloops Supreme Court Justice used to sentence a man guilty of killing two passengers with his dangerous driving to three years in jail. In addition to jail time, Justice Deborah Kloegman...
Man who killed two passengers after driving dangerously to get jail time
KAMLOOPS – In final submissions before Wayne Fedan is sentenced for two convictions of dangerous driving causing the deaths of Brittany Plotnikoff and Ken Craigdallie, both Crown and defence counsel called for jail sentences of no more than three years. “Human life can never really be valued or assigned a price... not just one, but...
Judge throws cold water on this short cut police use to get warrants
LAKE COUNTRY - Police in B.C. may find it a little tougher to obtain a search warrant after a B.C. Supreme Court justice in the Okanagan put a roadblock on a common short cut used by police for years. Justice Gary Weatherill tossed out a search warrant in a Lake Country pot case Oct. 23,...