Crown defends police undercover operation
‘Mr. Big’ sting led to murder conviction in 2001
The Crown is defending an elaborate undercover police operation that led to a Newfoundland man being convicted 17 years ago of murdering his wife in Richmond in 1994.
The so-called “Mr. Big” operation that resulted in Wade Skiffington being found guilty of the second-degree murder of Wanda Martin, 20, has come under attack by lawyers for the killer, who claim their client was wrongfully convicted.
In June last year, the federal justice minister ordered an investigation into the case after a preliminary assessment found that there may have been a miscarriage of justice.
Lawyers for Skiffington have argued that his confession was false and that their client should be released on bail pending the investigation, which could take several years.
But on Tuesday, the second day of a bail hearing, Crown counsel Hank Reiner began his submissions by playing Skiffington’s videotaped confession from 2000.
He told B.C. Supreme Court Justice Michael Tammen that he should pay particular attention to the demeanour of the accused, who is now 52 years old.
In an overview of their case, the Crown says that a careful and balanced assessment of the confession will not be able to persuade the minister that a miscarriage of justice has occurred.
It says that there is no reasonable basis to conclude that Skiffington was wrongfully convicted and that bail should be denied as it is not in the public interest that release be granted for a convicted murderer in light of the weakness of the grounds of review by the minister.
Also on Tuesday, the parents of the murder victim issued a statement saying that while they were upset that the killer is seeking bail, that proceeding does not “hold a candle” to what happened on the day of the slaying.
“Nothing can do that,” Douglas and Beverly Martin said in their statement. “We have survived that and we will survive this.”
After the murder, Skiffington was initially a suspect, but was not charged until he confessed during the Mr. Big operation. In 2001, a B.C. Supreme Court jury found him guilty of the fatal shooting of Wanda Martin in an apartment in Richmond. The couple’s infant son was in the apartment at the time.
Skiffington received a life sentence with no parole for 13 years. He appealed the conviction, but the appeal was denied.
In their statement, the parents said they had attended both the preliminary hearing and the trial pertaining to their daughter’s tragic death.
“We have no doubt that justice was served at the end of those proceedings with the guilty verdict,” said the couple. “Nothing short of Wanda returning to tell us that he is innocent will change our mind about that, and we know that is never going to happen.”
Skiffington is hoping the investigation will result in the matter being sent back to the courts for further review or for a new trial, and that in the end he will be exonerated.
But the Martins said it was their “firm belief ” that if the outcome of the proceedings is any different than the verdict reached at the original trial, it will be a conclusion based on a technicality.
The 17 years that Skiffington has been behind bars is long enough to convince their daughter’s killer of a lot of things, including that he did not commit the crime, the Martins said.
“Nothing can bring back those years, not even money. Nor can anything erase the images of Wanda that must be burned into the memory of the person who left that heinous crime scene on that day in September 1994, leaving a toddler with his mother’s body,” they said.