Supreme Court upholds convictions of 2 Calgary men who killed landlord
CBC
The Supreme Court of Canada has upheld the convictions of two Calgary men who killed their landlord.
Brian Lambert and James Beaver were convicted of manslaughter in the 2016 death of their roommate and landlord Sutton Bowers, 33. They were sentenced to four years in prison.
But the men appealed, arguing their confessions to police were a result of Charter breaches.
The Alberta Court of Appeal upheld their convictions but the Supreme Court of Canada agreed to hear the appeals.
On Friday, in a 5-4 split decision, the country's highest court dismissed the appeals, finding the confessions made by the pair were admissible.
In the weeks leading up to Bowers' death, he'd been fighting with Beaver and Lambert.
On October 8, 2016, Lambert and Bowers got into a physical fight over money. Beaver joined in and the fight escalated into a violent two-on-one attack.
Bowers was punched, grabbed by the neck and kicked in the stomach. His head was slammed on the floor.
Afterward, Beaver and Lambert cleaned up the blood and then staged Bowers' body at the foot of the stairs in an attempt to fool authorities into thinking he had fallen.
The next morning, Beaver called 911 and said he'd arrived home to find Bowers dead.
Police arrived and took Beaver and Lambert into custody. They questioned the men en route to CPS headquarters and did not advise the pair of their right to a lawyer.
When homicide detectives took over, they realized the men's Charter rights had been violated and attempted to make a "fresh start," advising the man of their rights.
In their appeals, defence lawyers Kelsey Sitar and Jennifer Ruttan argued police failed to effect a "fresh start" from the earlier Charter violations arising from their unlawful detention and asked the court to rule the confessions be excluded because they were obtained in a manner that breached their clients' rights.
The SCC ruled police had reasonable and probable grounds to arrest Beaver and Lambert.
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This First Person column is the experience of Andrew Stetson, a writer and storyteller in P.E.I. For more information about CBC's First Person stories, please see the FAQ.
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