Man loses bid for absolute discharge

A Vernon man who was found not criminally responsible for beating his friend to death and dismembering the body, has lost a bid for an absolute discharge.

In January 2011, Kenneth Scott Barter, 37, was found not guilty of the second-degree murder of the 32-year-old friend, who is only referred to in a court ruling by the initials N.M.

The trial heard that after the two men had been drinking in a bar, they spent the night at Barter’s apartment.

Early in the morning, Barter used a hammer to beat N.M. in the head, rendering him unconscious.

Barter then placed a plastic bag over the victim’s head and dragged the body into the bathtub.

He went out to buy some cigarettes and when he came back to the apartment he got the idea from a TV show to cut N.M.’s body into pieces. He dismembered the victim, double-bagged the parts and placed the bags in a freezer and refrigerator. He claimed he was in a delusional state at the time.

After the court found him not criminally responsible due to a mental disorder, he was detained in the Forensic Psychiatric Hospital and subjected to periodic reviews by the B.C. Review Board. In January 2015, the board discharged him conditionally.

That conditional-discharge status continued through a series of annual reviews in 2016, 2017 and 2018.

He argued that he should receive an absolute discharge, but the board refused to do so, finding that he remained a significant threat to public safety.

In one of its decisions, the board said the extent of Barter’s “inflexible thinking” remained a cause of significant concern.

Barter was diagnosed with schizophrenia and alcohol-use disorder.

The accused appealed the board’s finding, arguing that the conclusion that he was a significant threat was unreasonable and not supported by evidence.

But in a ruling posted online Monday, a threejudge panel of the B.C. Court of Appeal rejected his arguments.