Man who killed family in ’94 denied DNA testing
Lawyer says convicted Cranbrook murderer will now consider filing application to federal minister
A Cranbrook man who claims he was wrongfully convicted of murdering his wife and two infant sons has been denied a bid for DNA testing of trial exhibits.
In 1995, a B.C. Supreme Court jury found Dean Christopher Roberts guilty of three counts of first-degree murder. Roberts, who was 26 at the time, was sentenced to life in prison with no parole eligibility for 25 years.
The convictions came after Roberts confessed during a so-called Mr. Big police undercover operation to the 1994 slayings of his wife, Susan Roberts, 24, and his baby sons, Josiah and David.
Roberts admitted to undercover cops that he strangled his wife and one of his sons, and to smothering the second son. In an attempt to cover his tracks, he set the family home on fire. At trial, he denied that he’d committed the murders.
He appealed his convictions, but in April 1997 the B.C. Court of Appeal rejected the appeal. He did not seek leave to appeal his case to the Supreme Court of Canada.
“Mr. Roberts has been serving a life sentence for some 20 years now and he’s always maintained his innocence,” said Jeffrey Campbell, a lawyer for Roberts.
In late 2009, the UBC Innocence Project began working with Roberts with the result that in 2011 he sent a letter to the Crown requesting the release of certain exhibits for independent DNA testing.
The project argued that improvements in DNA technology could assist with advancing Roberts’ innocence claim, but the Crown denied the project’s request on the basis that it did not provide an explanation of how further testing could realistically impact or cast doubt on the verdicts.
There was more correspondence between the project and the Crown in the next several years, with the Crown continuing to decline the release of exhibits.
In March 2017, the project filed a petition in court seeking an order that exhibits and evidence be made available for DNA testing.
In a ruling on the petition that was released Friday, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Arne Silverman noted that when all appeals and reviews in an offender’s case have been exhausted, the only hope for a wrongfully convicted person is an application to the federal justice minister.
Roberts’ lawyers argued that it was impossible for Roberts to make a proper application to the minister without first obtaining the forensic testing. They claimed that the post-appeal review system set out in the Criminal Code was deficient and that there was a “clear gap” in the legislation, but the Crown countered that the legislation allowed the minister to do what Roberts was asking the court to do.
“I agree with the Crown,” the judge concluded. “The ‘Catch-22’ gap that the petitioner refers to is not a gap because the minister has the power and authority to do what is necessary to fill that gap,” said Silverman.
The judge added that the minister’s decision is subject to review in Federal Court and on such a review it would be open to Roberts to argue that the minister had failed to respect Charter values.
Silverman’s ruling touched briefly on another alleged wrongful-conviction case in B.C. involving Phillip Tallio, who in 1984 pleaded guilty to murdering a 22-month-old girl in Bella Coola.
Campbell said that he will discuss the Roberts ruling with his client, including the options of filing an application with the minister or filing an appeal of the court ruling.