Man guilty in connection with two slayings
Undercover operation turns up confession that suspect killed his wife and a male victim
A B.C. Supreme Court jury has found a Vancouver man guilty in connection with two slayings — one of the victims being his wife — that happened more than 10 years ago.
Late Sunday, following nearly four days of deliberations, the 12-member jury found Jaswant Singh Gill guilty of the manslaughter of his wife, Gurpreet (Ruby) Gill, 33, on Valentine’s Day in February 2006 and the first-degree murder of Thomas Eldon Akerman, 26, in December 1994.
Gill was initially charged with his wife’s second-degree murder, but the jury convicted him of the lesser offence of manslaughter.
The convictions came after the jury heard Gill’s confessions to the slayings during a Mr. Big police undercover operation.
Gill, who had a stormy relationship with his wife, was heard telling a police officer posing as the leader of a criminal organization that before the killing people were telling him to “get rid of her.”
He confessed to being on top of the victim, holding her down and making eye contact with her during the fatal assault. After killing her, he said he put her in a plastic bag, stored her body in a refrigerator before getting the assistance of another man to dispose of the body on “military” lands in Richmond.
The jury heard that Gurpreet Gill came to Canada from India after an arranged marriage with her husband in 2000, initially living in Victoria with the husband’s family and later moving to Vancouver to be with Gill. The victim’s mom reported her daughter missing to the Vancouver police, resulting in a missing-person’s investigation being launched that eventually turned into a homicide probe.
The investigation led to no charges being laid, but once the cops had reason to believe that Gill was responsible for his wife’s death, the undercover operation was commenced.
During Gill’s meeting with the undercover police, he made the startling admission that he’d also killed Akerman. He said he shot the victim three times in a vehicle parked near Metrotown.
Asked by the officer whether the fatal shooting was a “drug thing,” Gill replied that it was a “greed thing.”
After the Crown concluded its case, the defence called evidence concerning Gill’s mental health. In his opening statement, Gill’s lawyer told the jury that listening to the undercover evidence they would quickly notice that Gill suffers from a mental illness, including delusions and hallucinations.
First-degree murder carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison with no parole eligibility for 25 years. Manslaughter has a maximum sentence of life in prison, but normally results in a jail term.
The jury was asked by B.C. Supreme Court Justice Laura Gerow to return to court April 10 to deal with an issue that had arisen. She did not specify what the issue was.