Pickton guilty on all counts

[mr.x]

Pickton guilty on all counts
Family relief greets second-degree murder verdicts

Vancouver Sun
Published: Sunday, December 09, 2007

NEW WESTMINSTER - Robert (Willie) Pickton has been found guilty of second-degree murder - not first-degree murder as charged - in all six counts he was facing at his year-long trial, the jury foreman announced today in New Westminster Supreme Court.

Two young female jurors wept and wiped tears from their eyes as the foreman, a grey-haired retired man, announced the verdicts around 11:30 a.m.

The 12 people stood to show their unanimous support for the verdict, most of them not glancing at Pickton at all.

The jury has been deliberating since Nov. 30 the fate of the Port Coquitlam pig farmer, who was charged with killing 26 women who disappeared from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

Pickton, 58, pleaded not guilty. This trial, which dealt with only six of those murder charges, began Jan. 22 and heard from 128 witnesses.

Pickton has been found guilty of killing Mona Wilson, Andrea Joesbury and Sereena Abotsway, who all disappeared in 2001; Georgina Papin and Brenda Wolfe, who vanished in 1999; and Marnie Frey who went missing in 1997.

Family members of the victims who have been here every day for two weeks waiting for a verdict jumped at the news, many wiping tears from their eyes.

Each time the jury pronounced Pickton not guilty of first-degree murder, family members in the courtroom called out "No!"

Outside the courthouse immediately following the verdict, Rick Frey, father of murder victim Marnie Frey, said he knows in his heart what happened to his daughter and was content with the verdict.

Bonnie Fowler, Georgina Papin's sister, elatedly phoned an acquaintance to announce six counts of murder.


But Murray Watson - who grew up with Helen Hallmark, one of the women missing from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside - said he was disappointed the jury did not find Pickton guilty of first-degree murder, but added at least they convicted him of second degree.

"The million-dollar question now is whether there will be a second trial," he said outside the courthouse.

In tears, Trisha Baptie, a former sex trade worker hired by online magazine to report on the Pickton trial, said regardless of the second-degree murder verdict, Pickton is going away to jail for the rest of his life.

She said the trial has served to remind people that the victims were women, and not just junkies or sex trade workers.

Police found their partial remains on Pickton's Port Coquitlam farm, as well as personal possessions linked to four of the victims by DNA.

The key evidence for the Crown was two lengthy videotapes of Pickton speaking with police following his February 2002 arrest, during an 11-hour interrogation and to an undercover officer in his jail cell.

The Crown contends he confessed to those officers that he killed 49 women and had one more planned, but got caught because he was "sloppy." Pickton also said he used a rendering plant to get rid of bodies.

A clear motive for the murders never emerged at the trial. He sat throughout the 10-month hearing in the prisoner's box in the high-security courtroom, rarely moving or reacting to the often-graphic evidence presented to the jury.

Pickton's fate was in the hands of seven men and five women, who deliberated every day for 12 hours, and at night were sequestered in a New Westminster hotel.

Emotional family members of the missing women have been waiting for this news for a long time. They gathered at New Westminster Supreme Court for closing arguments in the case, heard between Nov. 19 and 30.

Since then, they have been in courthouse hallways, sometimes playing cards and piecing together jigsaw puzzles, while anxiously awaiting news from the jury. After complaining for years that police didn't take seriously the disappearances of their loved ones - mostly sex-trade workers and drug addicts - the relatives and friends were hoping they would finally find justice with a guilty verdict.

The Crown has indicated it will proceed with a second trial on the other 20 charges. It is to be discussed next Jan. 17 in B.C. Supreme Court.

lculbert@png.canwest.com





yay!!!

[SpongeG]

wow on a sunday

[vanman]

Yeah I walked by the NW courthouse this morning and there was a fairly large media presence out front.Had I had know that Pickton would have been convicted today I might of stuck around. He better get multiple life sentences without the possibility of parole.

[SpongeG]

he was convicted on 2nd degree so he is eligible for parole in 10 years unless the jury decide he has to wait 25 years to be eligible

I guess they felt there may have been someone else involved with him - i wonder if there was?

[vanman]

If there was I'm sure that person is long gone and somewhere on the other side of the planet. Although if that person is as intelligent as Pickton then I might be assuming too much.

[bils]

Originally Posted by mr.x2

The Crown has indicated it will proceed with a second trial on the other 20 charges. It is to be discussed next Jan. 17 in B.C. Supreme Court.

what a waste of tax dollars. just put a bullet to his head and get this over with.

[Distill3d]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

wow on a sunday

my thoughts exactly...


this is someones fall guy anyways, i've always thought so.

[Architype]

Originally Posted by bils

what a waste of tax dollars. just put a bullet to his head and get this over with.

Well, it's not just about him, it's about the victims and their families too.

Originally Posted by Distill3d

this is someones fall guy anyways, i've always thought so.

I think others were involved, but if that were so, wouldn't he have pointed the finger in order to save himself?

[Canadian Mind]

Who says he hasn't and for the sake of security they haven't let the public know about it.

Could be why he got 2nd degree murder counts instead of first degree murder counts.

[cornholio]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

he was convicted on 2nd degree so he is eligible for parole in 10 years unless the jury decide he has to wait 25 years to be eligible

I guess they felt there may have been someone else involved with him - i wonder if there was?

there are loop holes in our justice system that will prevent him ever being released. there are several other serial killers that will never see the light of day even though technically they should be released after serving 25 years.

on another note this guy probably was involved but everything seems to point to him being a fall guy and others involved. the worst thing is that in all probability he wasn't responsible for all the murders, maybe not even for a majority of them(out of the 50 or so) but the police just blamed everything and anything they could on him, they litterarly wiped their files clean by just saying he did it. cant blame them though since like this they saved a bit of face and now their works done while the public also thinks that the disapearences and murders all got solved. so yeah for sure hes the rcmps fall guy for alot of the murders and disapearences, i mean there were people that they said he killed and suddenly they showed up alive already so...

[SpongeG]

in some letter he wrote after being caught he said he was doing it to take the people that do evil things in the world off the planet

Serial killer's letters tell his motive


Published: Dec. 10, 2007 at 9:38 PM
Print story Email to a friend Font size:VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Dec. 10 (UPI) -- Robert William Pickton, found guilty of murdering six women who disappeared in Canada, said he was put on Earth to rid people of their "evil ways."

The 58-year-old pig farmer from Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, was arrested in 2002 and was charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of the six women in Vancouver, British Columbia. Prosecutors accused him of butchering their corpses before disposing of their remains on his farm.

He was convicted Sunday of six counts of second-degree murder. No motive has emerged, The Vancouver Sun reported Monday.

"I know I was brought into this world to be hear today to change this world of there evil ways. They even want to dis-re-guard the 10 command-ments from the time that Moses in his day brought in power which still is in existence today," Pickton wrote (The spelling errors are his.) to a prison pen pal in 2006 while awaiting trial.

Pickton faces a second murder trial in connection with the deaths of 20 other women.

http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_New...s_motive/7055/

[bils]

From Vancouver Sun -

The sentencing hearing is continuing in B.C. Supreme Court and the Crown has urged the trial judge to impose the 25-year maximum, effectively making the sentence the same as first-degree murder.

"We are going to seek from you the maximum period before parole -- 25 years," Petrie said.

A jury decided Sunday after 10 days of deliberations that Pickton was guilty of six counts of second-degree murder.

The murder victims were Georgina Papin, Marnie Frey, Brenda Wolfe, Sereena Abotsway, Mona Wilson and Andrea Joesbury. The women disappeared from the Downtown Eastside between 1997 and 2001.

A second trial on 20 more murder counts is scheduled to be in court until Jan. 24 at 2 p.m. to fix a date for trial.

Pickton, 58, will receive a mandatory life sentence for second-degree murder, but the judge must decide whether to impose a parole ineligibility period of between 10 and 25 years.

**************************************

this makes no sense whatsoever. how it is possible that he could get the maximum sentence and still serve only 25 years? he's been CONVICTED of SIX 2nd degree murders. he should be sentenced to 6x25 YEARS = 150 YEARS in prison. so technically he could murder 1000 people and still only serve 25 years? you gotta be fucking kidding me. and we wonder why we have a problem with crime in this country...........

[Distill3d]

Originally Posted by bils

....
Pickton, 58.....

**************************************

this makes no sense whatsoever. how it is possible that he could get the maximum sentence and still serve only 25 years? he's been CONVICTED of SIX 2nd degree murders. he should be sentenced to 6x25 YEARS = 150 YEARS in prison. so technically he could murder 1000 people and still only serve 25 years? you gotta be fucking kidding me. and we wonder why we have a problem with crime in this country...........

I have complete faith in our justice system sentencing a man who's nearly 60 years old to a prison sentence where he won't see the outside walls until he's 83 years old. chances are, the man dies in prison. he already has Hep C and probably won't last that long anyways. and besides, do you honestly think we would parole one of the most notorious serial killers in the country? if that was the case, i'm sure Cliff Olsen would be walking the streets picking up more victims as we speak.

[djh]

Originally Posted by Distill3d

I have complete faith in our justice system sentencing a man who's nearly 60 years old to a prison sentence where he won't see the outside walls until he's 83 years old. chances are, the man dies in prison. he already has Hep C and probably won't last that long anyways. and besides, do you honestly think we would parole one of the most notorious serial killers in the country? if that was the case, i'm sure Cliff Olsen would be walking the streets picking up more victims as we speak.

See, that's half the problem with the Canadian justice system: people don't get the *just* sentence they deserve, they get light sentences, on top of which, the length you serve often appears to be calculated dependent on how notorious your case is. Who cares if he murdered 6 people and it made front covers or if he murdered 1 person and it went unnoticed by the press?! You commit murder, you go to jail. Forget parole and "he's such a model prisoner" nonsense...he's removed somebody's mother, sister, wife or daughter from the planet so justice needs to be served.

Man, I'm sure criminals come here because they know that even if they get caught, some bleeding heart is gonna pervert the legal justice system to plead their case and reduce the severity of their punishment! Sad state...

[cornholio]

Originally Posted by djh

See, that's half the problem with the Canadian justice system: people don't get the *just* sentence they deserve, they get light sentences, on top of which, the length you serve often appears to be calculated dependent on how notorious your case is. Who cares if he murdered 6 people and it made front covers or if he murdered 1 person and it went unnoticed by the press?! You commit murder, you go to jail. Forget parole and "he's such a model prisoner" nonsense...he's removed somebody's mother, sister, wife or daughter from the planet so justice needs to be served.

Man, I'm sure criminals come here because they know that even if they get caught, some bleeding heart is gonna pervert the legal justice system to plead their case and reduce the severity of their punishment! Sad state...

We have a very good justice system and very low crime rates, much lower then countries that use ignorant and idiotic tactics with out ever looking at the bigger picture such as say our neighbor to the south for one. The number one rule of our justice system is rehabilitation, and our justice system is based on logic and compassion. In any case a serial killer such as Pickton or Olson will never see the light of day because they are always going to be a danger to society and unable to be rehabilitated, that means they will be behind bars or institutionalized indefenitly and this is all within the law. I find it a bit disheartening when people bitch and complain about a system that not only is not broken but is also working effectively and much more effectively then what many of these people want to turn to and take us back a hundred years.