Vader in court for allegedly violating bail conditions
A man convicted of killing two senior citizens was “yelling and swearing” when he was arrested for allegedly violating his bail conditions in the midst of a doublemurder trial, court heard Tuesday.
Travis Vader was sentenced to life in prison in January after being found guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter in connection to the 2010 deaths of St. Albert couple Lyle and Marie McCann, ages 78 and 77.
Vader has never admitted to the killings, and the whereabouts of the couple’s remains has never been determined.
In an opening statement Tuesday morning, Crown prosecutor Jim Stewart outlined allegations that Vader failed to comply with conditions of his release by contacting a witness in the trial and failing a drug test, as well as one count each of breaking and entering at a west-end business and possession of a stolen vehicle.
RCMP Sgt. Patrick Frey asked Vader for a urine sample at the end of a day in court on May 5, 2016.
“Having seen Travis on the day he provided his sample, I suspected he was using some kind of drug,” Frey testified Tuesday.
When police received a call on May 10, 2016, that Vader had tested positive for a high amount of methamphetamine, about a dozen officers in four or five police vehicles attended the west-Edmonton motel that was Vader’s court-approved residence during the trial.
Vader wasn’t there, so officers used the tracking bracelet he was wearing to trace his whereabouts as he moved around west Edmonton. Vader was eventually arrested in the parking lot of a Happy Mart on Winterburn Road, court heard.
He was also charged with possession of a stolen truck, and a break and enter at a nearby business.
Upon his arrest, Vader was placed in the back of a police vehicle, shouting and swearing at officers “continuously,” Frey said.
Vader’s lawyer, Nate Whitling, has filed a Charter notice related to evidence about the police reliance on the tracking bracelet, and so some of the testimony and exhibits presented Tuesday were heard during a voir dire — a trial within a trial — for provincial court Judge Donna Valgardson to make a ruling on admissibility.
Vader sat next to his lawyer at the defence table, but remained shackled at the ankles throughout the hearing.
After the May 2016 arrest, Vader was denied bail and has been in custody since.
The day after receiving his life sentence, Vader’s lawyers filed an appeal in which Vader asked for his conviction to be set aside and for him to receive either a stay of proceedings or an acquittal.
The trial is expected to run until Thursday.