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Supreme Court

SNELSON TRIAL: Lawyers present final arguments in manslaughter trial

KAMLOOPS - Motive, opportunity and his own lies all point to Neil George Snelson as the person who strangled and beat 19-year-old Jennifer Cusworth to death over 20 years ago in Kelowna, court heard from the Crown during final arguments today, June 15. Cusworth, an Okanagan Community College student was found in a ditch on...

Okanagan Indian Band to continue fight for Commonage Reserve lands

VERNON - After fighting for title rights to the Commonage Reserve in Vernon for over 100 years, the Okanagan Indian Band says an unfavourable court ruling does not mark the end of the battle.  “We’re not going away,” Chief Byron Louis says. “We haven’t given up on it for the last 133 years, I’d be...

Man stuck with fine for illegal dock work on Okanagan Lake

VERNON - If you’re a waterfront property owner who’s ever built a dock on the lake, a B.C. Supreme Court Judge says you need a permit for that. It’s a rule cottage owner Laurent Desautels didn’t know about in March 2013, when he hired Okanagan Pile Driving Inc. to install piles into Okanagan Lake as...

Kamloops gun club to gain rare rifle after drug traffickers’ sentencing

KAMLOOPS – The city’s gun club is the unlikely beneficiary of a heavy sentence levied against a drug trafficker sentenced today in Kamloops Supreme Court—they will take custody of a rare, valuable collective rifle police confiscated. Terrence Arthur Dean, 64, was sentenced to five years in prison today, March 30, after he earlier pleaded guilty...

Rail corridor in doubt as Okanagan Indian Band takes land claim to court

VERNON - The Okanagan Indian Band is filing a notice of claim in B.C. Supreme Court, asserting aboriginal title to a portion of the discontinued CN rail corridor between Lake Country and Vernon. It’s part of the same rail corridor local municipalities are working towards purchasing for conversion into a trail, but Okanagan Indian Band...

Accused in Clearwater murder case denied bail

KAMLOOPS – A Supreme Court Justice denied bail for a Clearwater man accused of killing his ex-wife and taking his three children hostage last Easter.  Crown Prosecutor Adrienne Murphy confirmed Justice Alison Beames denied Iain Drummond Scott’s application for bail Tuesday morning in Kelowna Supreme Court. Scott was arrested after a police standoff outside his...

Jail for killing pedestrian? No, judge says house arrest instead

KAMLOOPS – A Kamloops man who struck and killed a 66-year-old woman in a crosswalk will serve his sentence at home instead of jail after a judge overturned his original six-month jail sentence on Friday, Feb. 13. At an appeal hearing in Kamloops Supreme Court, Justice Alison Beames granted Donald Charles Isadore his appeal and substituted a nine-month...

Accused Westside shooter trial coming to an end

"THE CASE BECOMES STRONGER WITH EACH PASSING KILOMETRE." KELOWNA – Was Michael Ellis only doing what he was told when he led police on a high speed shootout along Westside Road in 2012 or is his friend and former co-accused taking the blame because he knows it can’t affect his sentence? That was the focus...

Vernon judge comes down hard on missionary’s ‘corrective’ child beatings

“WHEN CONDUCT BASED ON RELIGIOUS BELIEFS IS CONTRARY WITH THE CRIMINAL CODE OF CANADA, THE CRIMINAL CODE MUST PREVAIL”: JUDGE VERNON - He said he punished his kids so they would never find themselves tangled up in the criminal justice system, like he is now.  The 42-year-old, who met his wife while doing missionary work...

Father acquitted in allegations of sexually abusing daughter

DISCRETION ADVISED; CONTENT MAY BE DISTURBING KAMLOOPS – A justice in Kamloops Supreme Court acquitted a Merritt father accused of touching his daughter for a sexual purpose after determining the daughter’s testimony was inconsistent. Justice Miriam Gropper said while she found the daughter to be “extremely poised and coherent” as she delivered evidence in court,...

Man earns jail time for robbing Enderby liquor store at knife-point

ENDERBY - A man with a lengthy criminal history was handed three years in prison for robbing the Enderby Liquor Store at knife-point. Donny Glen Neigum, 42, entered the liquor store Dec. 29, 2012 with his face hidden behind a scarf and a hoodie. He brandished a knife, and pushed the handle end of it...

Pathologist describes victim’s fatal head wounds

KAMLOOPS – Autopsy photos of at least nine blows to a murder victim's head were presented by a forensic pathologist in Kamloops Supreme Court Friday. Robert Donald Balbar is charged with the second-degree murder in the death of his girlfriend Heather Hamill. Earlier in the trial, court heard Balbar’s video recorded confession when he told...

Undercover officer questioned suspect on criminal activity before introduction to crime boss

"I KNOW YOU KILLED HER" GRAPHIC LANGUAGE/SUBJECT MATTER KAMLOOPS – A jury heard recorded discussions between an undercover police officer posing as a criminal, who encouraged a murder suspect to speak to his fake crime boss about the murder of his girlfriend in Supreme Court Tuesday afternoon. The target was Robert Donald Balbar, who is...

Unsatisfied customer ends up in court after making false allegations

KAMLOOPS – A disgruntled yacht-owner will have to pay $40,000 to the business that sold him the boat after he made false allegations about the business’s sales manager. Robert Turpin, of 100 Mile House, paid $1,160,000 to purchase a used 64-foot yacht from Ocean Alexander Marine Yacht Sales, a business based near Seattle, but when...

Penticton man keeps long-term offender status, appeal denied

PENTICTON - Wilfred Charles Baptiste will keep his criminal designation as a long-term offender after his appeal to have the designation removed was dismissed. Baptiste did not think he fit the long-term offender criteria and appealed to have the designation removed. The appeal was dismissed by Justice Wilcock in Penticton Supreme Court on Sept. 23,...

Hells Angel found guilty on weapons charges

KELOWNA – The public may never know what would have happened had four armed men not been pulled over for speeding two years ago—but what police found inside the vehicle that night was enough to convict two of them of almost a dozen charges. Full patch Hells Angel Joseph Bruce Skreptak and alleged gang associate...

Matthew Foerster to appeal first degree murder conviction

ARMSTRONG - The man convicted of brutally killing an Armstrong teen is appealing his first degree murder verdict. A jury found Matthew Foerster, 28, guilty of murdering Taylor Van Diest, 18, in April of this year. The verdict carries an automatic life sentence, with no eligibility for parole for 25 years. But a notice of...

UPDATE: Cache of guns, Hell’s Angels paraphernalia found on traffic stop: Crown

KELOWNA – Whether or not Hell’s Angel Joseph Bruce Skreptak knew he was in a vehicle full of guns when he was arrested Nov. 25, 2010 was the focus of the opening day of his Supreme Court trial Wednesday morning. Skreptak, who was arrested shortly after 10 that night along with three other men, is...

Witness shot at three times, continues following

KELOWNA – A witness who took the stand in the attempted murder trial of accused Westside Road shooter Michael Ellis was shot at three separate times, but still refused to stop following him. Michael James Scott is an onsite construction supervisor with the Ministry of Transportation. He was in his work truck on Westside Road...