Court quashes neo- Nazi’s appeal
The Alberta Court of Appeal has ruled that it was proper for the jury to hear several intercepted conversations between accused killer, neo- Nazi Robert Reitmeier, and his co- accused that included racist and political overtones.
Thus, the province’s top court Monday dismissed the appeal of Reitmeier’s second- degree murder conviction in the beating death of Mark Mariani. Defence lawyer Kim Ross told the three- justice panel that the calls were highly prejudicial to his client, thus his conviction should be overturned and he should get a new trial. The judges disagreed.
“That which may be characterized as the ‘ conversational narrative’ was critical not only to the theory of the Crown, but importantly, to the position advanced by the appellant, whose counsel took great pains to focus upon the brotherhood’ of which the appellant and Mr. ( Tyler) Sturrup were members,” wrote justices Ronald Berger, Peter Martin and Barbara Veldhuis.
“The jury was invited to conclude that membership in that ‘ brotherhood’ with its attendant racial focus and free exchange of information, inclusive of talk of immoral and criminal behaviour established that the appellant would have knowledge of the murder without having participated in it. The jury, as it was entitled to do, rejected that contention.”
The court said no objection was taken by the defence counsel to the admissibility of those conversations and, importantly, it was clearly a strategic choice to urge the jury to consider the context of the conversations.
Both Reitmeier and Tyler Sturrup were convicted in the random beating death of Mark Mariani, who was attacked in an alley on Oct. 3, 2010.
“This was an opportunistic act of violence, not a whole motive,” said Ross. “There’s absolutely no direct admission by Mr. Reitmeier that he was there or did anything. He says he didn’t have anything to do with it.”
Crown prosecutor Christine Rideout argued the defence lawyer at trial was aware of the potential prejudice involved with the tapes, as was everyone else, and he wanted all of the tapes included to show it was Tyler Sturrup and not Reitmeier who was the killer.
“Everybody in the case was aware of the issues of bad character,” Rideout said. “We’re talking about conversations between two men who were part of an organization and brotherhood. The defence says Reitmeier didn’t do it, Sturrup did. He could have sought the exclusion of the tapes, he could have sought editing. ( What he did) was a tactical decision.”
Sturrup had pleaded guilty to the charge. Reitmeier was sentenced to life with no parole for at least 13 years for the beating death of Mariani in an alley behind a strip mall at 1540 16th Ave. N. W.
Justice Colleen Kenny said she gave Reitmeier, 29, three more years to serve before parole than Sturrup, 30, primarily because Sturrup pleaded guilty and Reitmeier was on probation for other violent crimes at the time.
The killers were members of a white supremacist group and were painting a swastika on a nearby wall. The Crown theorized that Mariani, who suffered from Crohn’s disease and wore a colostomy bag, stepped into the alley after experiencing a bout of sickness and stumbled across his killers.
Although there was no discernible racial element to the killing, during the police investigation homicide detectives caught Reitmeier bragging about the crime in wiretapped conversations with Sturrup. Reitmeier laughed about the killing.