Sandeson denied bail yet again

A former Dalhousie University medical student awaiting retrial on a charge of firstdegree murder in the August 2015 disappearance of Taylor Samson showed no emotion Friday after he was denied bail for the third time.

Justice James Chipman's decision in Nova Scotia Supreme Court in Halifax means William Michael Sandeson, 29, will remain in custody until he goes to trial in January 2023.

“Oh, farm boy still can't win, never will,” Samson's mother, Linda Boutilier, said to Sandeson from the back row of the public gallery before she left the courtroom with a friend.

Sandeson grew up on a farm in Lower Truro and was about to begin classes at medical school when he allegedly shot and killed Samson on the night of Aug. 15, 2015, and disposed of his body, which has not been recovered.

Samson, a 22-year-old physics student at Dal, allegedly went to Sandeson's apartment on Henry Street in Halifax that night to sell him nine kilograms of marijuana for $40,000.

Samson's DNA was allegedly found on a 9mm handgun, a duffel bag and other items police seized from the apartment or from the Sandeson family's farm near Truro.

A Supreme Court jury found Sandeson guilty of firstdegree murder in June 2017, and he was sentenced to life in prison with no parole eligibility for 25 years.

But the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal quashed the conviction in June 2020 and ordered a new trial. The Appeal Court ruled a mistrial should have been declared after it was revealed at trial that a private investigator hired by the defence had tipped off police about evidence.

Two of Sandeson's neighbours told police they hadn't seen or heard anything on the night of the alleged killing. But they later told private investigator Bruce Webb that they looked into Sandeson's apartment after hearing a single gunshot and saw a man slumped over the kitchen table with blood coming from his head.

Webb, a retired Mountie, gave the information to police and urged them to re-interview the pair, who had moved to Ontario.

The Crown applied to the Supreme Court of Canada for leave to appeal the Appeal Court decision and have the conviction restored, but the application was dismissed last February.

Sandeson was denied bail by a different Supreme Court judge, Justice Jamie Campbell, in October 2015 and by Chipman

last January.

He applied for a bail review last month, claiming there had been a material change in his circumstances and proposing a new release plan.

Chipman heard the first step in the application Friday and ruled there had not been the change in circumstances required to have a bail review.

The reasons for the judge's decision cannot be reported because of a temporary publication ban on details of the various bail hearings to protect Sandeson's right to a fair trial by a jury of his peers.

Outside court, Crown attorneys Christjne Driscoll and Kim Mconie did not wish to comment on the ruling.

Sandeson's lawyers, Alison Craig and Gina Igbokwe, participated in the hearing virtually via a video link from Toronto.

FILE William Michael Sandeson, shown in 2015 after he was charged with first-degree murder.