Ex-lovers cleared as recording inadmissible

Purported murder plot of spouses was improperly obtained, judge rules

After a Saskatchewan judge ruled an ipod recording containing an alleged murder plot was inadmissible at their trial, Angela Nicholson and Curtis Vey have been found not guilty on two counts each of conspiracy to commit murder.

In a written decision issued Monday at Prince Albert Court of Queen’s Bench, Justice Catherine Dawson ruled the seizure of the recording device was a breach of Vey and Nicholson’s charter rights. She acquitted them after the Crown decided not to call evidence on the trial proper, based on Dawson’s ruling, which followed last month’s admissibility hearing, or voir dire.

Vey, who lives near Wakaw, and Nicholson, who is from Melfort, were convicted of conspiracy to commit murder following a jury trial three years ago, but the Court of Appeal overturned the convictions, citing errors in the trial judge’s instructions to the jury.

The retrial for the pair — former lovers accused of plotting to kill Brigitte Vey and Jim Taylor in 2013 — began and ended in less than two hours following a chaotic morning of adjournments after Dawson’s charter decision.

Brigitte had been secretly recording her husband, who she suspected was having an affair, when she accidentally captured the July 2013 conversation between Vey and Nicholson in the Veys’ home. During the first trial, court heard Vey and Nicholson discussed their affair and ways to kill their spouses. The hour-long conversation was key evidence in the trial.

In a charter application filed last month, defence lawyers Aaron Fox and Ron Piche argued the ipod recording should be ruled inadmissible evidence because Vey and Nicholson had a reasonable expectation of privacy when it was made, and therefore police seized the device from Brigitte without a warrant.

“In this case (Dawson) concluded that the public interest would best be served by exclusion of that ipod, and she used very strong language throughout. Major crimes were involved in this, high-tech people were involved, and essentially they should have known better,” Piche said outside court.

“Her decision is not to punish the police. Her decision is to respect the rule of law and our constitutional rights.”

Dawson did not read aloud her reasons for throwing out the ipod evidence, which are contained in a 73-page written decision. Requests for copies of the decision were unanswered as of Monday afternoon.

Dawson’s decision only dealt with the recorded conversation — not any evidence that came as a result of it. However, prosecutor Lori O’connor said the Crown chose not to call other witnesses, including Brigitte and undercover police officers.

O’connor confirmed that the Crown is considering appealing

Brigitte testified on the voir dire that she had been secretly recording her husband, off and on, over a few months. She said her intention was to use the information for her own purposes, but she brought the ipod to police when she heard the contents of the last recording.

She did not testify about what she heard on the recording.

Outside court, Brigitte said the best thing that could have happened as a result of her turning over the recording to police six years ago, did happen: neither she nor Nicholson’s spouse, Jim Taylor, were hurt.

Vey and Nicholson made references to burning down Vey’s house with Brigitte inside and making Taylor “go missing” during the conversation that was played for jurors at the first trial. Throughout the trial, the pair’s lawyers argued their clients had no intentions of following through with what they discussed on the recording.

The pair have been out on bail since filing their appeals in September 2016.