Court of Appeal upholds manslaughter convictions

The confessions of two Calgary men in the beating death of their landlord were admissible, Alberta’s top court said Thursday in upholding their manslaughter convictions.

A three-member Alberta Court of Appeal panel said Justice Keith Yamauchi made no errors in finding the statements of James Beaver and Brian Lambert weren’t the result of Charter breaches by police.

Yamauchi agreed the two men were unlawfully detained, but found police corrected that breach before the confessions were taken.

“We are not persuaded that the trial judge erred in his determination that the confessions of the appellants were untainted by the Charter breaches,” the appeal court judges said.

Yamauchi convicted both men of manslaughter after their trial lawyers, Kelsey Sitar and Gloria Froese, along with Crown prosecutor Tom Buglas, presented an agreed statement of facts based on the admissions they made to police.

The Court of Queen’s Bench judge found both men guilty on Oct. 8, 2016, in the beating death of their live-in landlord, Sutton Bowers.

According to the agreed facts, Lambert got into a physical fight with Bowers after the two argued about expenses and Beaver joined in, making it a two-on-one confrontation.

During the altercation, Bowers suffered a fractured thyroid cartilage in his neck and stopped breathing.

“A seriously aggravating factor is that neither of the offenders sought medical help for Mr. Bowers after they had noticed that he had stopped breathing,” Yamauchi said.

“Nor did they try to help him. The Crown argues that this lack of action was selfish and callous. This court agrees but goes further to find that it was just plain cruel.”

The judge noted the two men worked in concert to assault their victim.

“At one point, Mr. Lambert was holding Mr. Bowers while Mr. Beaver was punching (him).”

The judge also noted Bowers’ death had a significant effect on his family, as evidenced by victim-impact statements from his parents and two sisters.

Bowers’ mom, Lorine Helenka-bowers, read in her statement to the court.

“I have haunted thoughts that if the accused had called 911, maybe (Bowers) would not have died alone, or died at all,” she said.

Yamauchi sentenced both men to four-year prison terms.

He said a message needed to be sent to others contemplating group attacks.

“This was a senseless crime that has had a profound effect on Mr. Bowers’ family,” he said.

Yamauchi said the crime was compounded by the fact the killers made a half-hearted effort to clean up the crime scene and positioned Bowers’ body at the base of stairs to make it look like he had died accidentally.

“Your conscious act of attempting to cover your tracks and concocting the story that pointed to a different perpetrator or to Mr. Bowers’ death by accident was cruel, self-serving and socially abhorrent.”