Accused claims drug dealer dared him to fire fatal shot

2017 statement to Calgary police officer could be admitted in murder trial

Moments before being fatally shot during a botched robbery, smalltime drug dealer Paul Hepher told murder suspect Terrance Wardale “you don’t have the nerve to shoot me,” the accused killer confessed.

Hepher was wrong, as moments later Wardale pulled the trigger, the accused told Det. Iwan Munnikhuis 16 years after the killing.

In a videotaped interview conducted at the Calgary Police Service Westwinds Campus, Wardale told the investigator he was glad to get it off his chest after so many years of silence.

Wardale, 63, is charged with the second-degree murder of Hepher in late February or early March of 2001.

He was brought in for questioning by Munnikhuis on April 12, 2017, just hours after giving a statement to undercover officers during a so-called Mr. Big operation.

During the interview, Munnikhuis told Wardale police were able to use a discarded apple core to match his DNA to genetic material left at the homicide scene.

The officer then asked the financially strapped Wardale if he had gone to Hepher’s residence to rob him and things went wrong.

“Well … I don’t know if you can imagine what it’s like to live with something for 16 years, but I’ve lived with this,” Wardale began.

He said Hepher had threatened him for not paying a drug debt and was going to “send some people that I work with to see you and your family.”

Wardale admitted he went to Hepher’s northwest Calgary residence masked and armed with a .22-calibre handgun.

“I had a roll of duct tape. I said ‘I’m gonna tape your mouth.’ He wasn’t having any of that,” Wardale told Munnikhuis.

“He came at me like a, like a vicious little drug dealer.”

Wardale said he was able to overpower Hepher and pin him to the floor, but Hepher reached up and ripped the mask off his face.

“I said, ‘I didn’t want this to happen.’ I said, ‘All you had to do was lay down. Now you’ve … seen me and I don’t know who your people are, but it’s gotta end here.’ “

At that point Hepher swore at him, said Wardale didn’t have the nerve to do it and spat in his face.

“And I pulled the trigger,” he told Munnikhuis.

Under cross-examination by defence lawyer Adriano Iovinelli, the officer said he was specifically told not to mention Wardale’s Mr. Big confession during his questioning.

He also said he was unaware Hepher had an injury to his right hand and didn’t ask the accused how that may have happened.

Justice Blair Nixon must still rule on whether Wardale’s confession is admissible, although Iovinelli is not challenging that it was given voluntarily.