Parole board suggested man accused in killing had high risk of violence
Years before Tyler Vandewater was charged in the death of a fellow inmate, the Parole Board of Canada warned in an April 2011 report that he would be likely to kill someone or cause serious bodily harm if released from custody.
Vandewater, 28, is charged with second-degree murder in the death of Christopher Van Camp, 37, who was found unresponsive in his Saskatchewan Penitentiary cell in June.
The Saskatoon StarPhoenix obtained documents from the parole board assessing Vandewater throughout his previous sentence for a violent assault.
Then in his early 20s, Vandewater was serving four years, 11 months and 11 days for aggravated assault, assault causing bodily harm, two counts of assaulting a peace officer and uttering threats. He had approached a man, asked him a question and punched him in the head several times. He continued the assault after the man fell to the ground and lost consciousness, the parole board noted.
“The victim received life-threatening injuries, remained in a coma for days and continues to suffer physically and emotionally due to your impulsive actions,” the board wrote to Vandewater. “You attempted to rationalize your aggressive outburst and claimed alcohol was a factor which contributed to this offence as well as previous violent offences.”
While on remand, Vandewater assaulted a guard who had insisted he follow institutional rules, head butting him and trying to choke him before other guards intervened. While in custody, he also stabbed another inmate and threatened others, the board noted.
In April 2011, Vandewater’s parole eligibility was reviewed ahead of his statutory release date, which was set for May 13 that year. The Correctional Service of Canada believed he would be likely to cause death or harm to someone else if he were to be released before the expiry of his sentence in January 2013, the review found.
The parole board noted he had previous convictions for violent offences, including a robbery during which he held a knife to a store clerk’s throat. In custody, he created a “metal shank” from property he destroyed and used food trays to hit other people, the board stated.
“You are currently being investigated for an assault wherein another offender was subjected to various stab wounds,” the board wrote to Vandewater in the 2011 report.
The board noted that several programs were recommended as part of Vandewater’s correctional plan, but he had not completed any. The board agreed with the CSC’s assessment and found he showed no empathy or remorse for the person he assaulted and was unable to explain how he would avoid violence in the future.
“You continue to live by the con code where violence beckons violence,” the parole board wrote.
The board recommended he remain in custody until his warrant expiry date — the maximum time he could be held in custody.
Another parole board report outlined some of the violent incidents Vandewater had been involved in during his sentence. In November 2011, he instigated a fight with another inmate and the fight continued despite “inflammatory spray ” being deployed. The other inmate stabbed Vandewater in the head, but officials could not determine whose knife it was to begin with.
He also threatened officers and attempted to incite other inmates to “smash up;” metal pieces were found in a laundry bag in his cell; he assaulted another inmate with a weapon in November 2011, and the following month he stabbed another inmate. Six months were added to his sentence. He was later sentenced to three more months for another incident, in which he stabbed a fellow inmate four times. His warrant expiry was moved forward to October 2013.
By June 2013, when the parole board assessed Vandewater again, his sentence had again been lengthened and its expiry moved to January 2014. He had incurred eight institutional charges and been involved in five institutional security incidents by then.
“Due to your deteriorating institutional behaviour, you have been involuntarily segregated and are being involuntarily transferred to another institution. Psychological assessments indicate that you continue to be a high risk to commit violent crime,” the parole board told Vandewater in June 2013.
By the end of his sentence, he had served five years, 11 months and nine days.
Van Camp’s mother, Lauren Laithwaite, is suing the CSC and the Attorney General of Canada, alleging CSC put Van Camp into “unsupervised proximity of an extremely violent inmate,” Vandewater. The allegations in the lawsuit have not been proven in court.
Vandewater is next scheduled to appear in court on the murder charge on Aug. 9.