Vernon killer 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 to cut N.M’s body to pieces from a TV show. 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 that the extent of Barter’s “inflexible thinking” remained a cause of significant concern.

“The kind of problems posed by such thinking leaves the accused unable to appreciate the nuances of his risk,” said the board’s 2017 decision.

Bart er 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. But in a ruling posted online Monday, a three-judge panel of the B.C. Court of Appeal rejected his arguments.

In his oral reasons for judgment, B.C. Court of Appeal Justice David Frankel noted that Barter’s statements to the board showed a continuing inflexibility, rigid thinking and sense of entitlement.

Frankel’s reasons were agreed to by Justice Daphne Smith and Justice John Hunter.