Dramatic crime odyssey over
Former MMA fighter wanted in shooting death finally back in Canada
When former mixed martial arts fighter Steven Skinner appears in a Dartmouth, N.S., courtroom this morning, it will mark a homecoming of sorts after a dramatic six-year odyssey that began with a cold-blooded murder, then progressed through an intercontinental manhunt and an abusive “Mr. Big” police operation to a dramatic takedown of the shirtless fugitive on a Venezuelan tourist beach.
But for Gloria Adams, whose son Stacey Jordan Adams was found shot to death in a car in Lake Echo, N.S., a few days after his 20th birthday, it will mean the fulfilment of a promise to see his alleged killer brought to justice.
“Gloria did have a promise to her son. She has always said that and she knew that this day would come,” said Kendelle Blois, a family friend
Skinner, 44, who is facing a second-degree murder charge in Adams death, plus other unrelated charges, arrived in Halifax on Saturday in the company of RCMP officers.
He was arrested by Venezuelan police more than a year ago on the beach at El Yaque on Margarita Island, a popular tourist destination just off the north coast of the South American country.
Canadian federal officials would not comment on the handover of the prisoner, which was contested in Venezuelan courts, and complicated by the fact Canada and Venezuela do not share an extradition treaty.
How he got to Venezuela is almost as complicated as how he got back, according to police and court records.
At the time of Adams’ murder, Skinner, a large and muscular man who fought professionally, was on bail and under a judge’s orders to stay away from Nova Scotia. Two years earlier, Skinner had been arrested in Ontario and charged with aggravated assault, forcible confinement, and other offences, following a gruesome assault in Lower Sackville, N.S. Skinner still faces those charges.
Despite the bail condition, police allege Skinner somehow returned to Dartmouth, and was at a house in Lake Echo, outside Dartmouth, with a cocaine trafficker, when Adams arrived to buy marijuana. That is when police allege Skinner shot him three times and left his body in a car.
That same night, according to court records, Skinner flew from Moncton to Vancouver, and the next day flew via Calgary, to Mazatlan, Mexico.
Skinner then travelled to Panama and on to Medellin, Colombia, using a fake Mexican passport. He was fingerprinted and released, then vanished again.
When police located him in Venezuela, he is alleged to have again been carrying fake identification.
Meanwhile, back in Nova Scotia, the police investigation zeroed in on Brittany Leigh Derbyshire. She was alleged to have driven Skinner to the Moncton airport and helped him get rid of evidence.
Police devised an operation to pose as members of an outlaw motorcycle gang tasked with cleaning up the mess Skinner had left behind.
Dressed the part,,, two officers convinced her to show them places of interest to their investigation. Based on what she told them, she was charged with being an accessory after the fact to murder.
At trial, a judge found this “Mr. Big” sting to be an abuse of process, and ruled the evidence obtained by it could not be used against Derbyshire. Left with no evidence, the Crown appealed, and lost.