Man appeals murder conviction in cellmate’s bloody beating
Sask. Pen inmate who killed man in 2017 not eligible for parole for at least 16 years
PRINCE ALBERT After Tyler Vandewater was sentenced to 16 years without a chance of parole for the fatal prison-cell beating described by the trial judge as “brutal” and “one-sided,” his defence lawyer appealed the guilty verdict.
Vandewater, 31, was given a life sentence in March after he was found guilty of second-degree murder in the June 2017 death of his Saskatchewan Penitentiary cellmate, Chris Van Camp. On Friday in Prince Albert Court of Queen’s Bench, Justice Brian Scherman announced how long it will be before Vandewater is eligible for parole.
“I do regret this every day of my life,” Vandewater said Friday during sentencing.
Shortly after the sentencing hearing, defence lawyer Brian Pfefferle confirmed the filing of a notice of appeal.
Van Camp, 37, was on parole when he took cocaine laced with fentanyl and overdosed on May 24, 2017. He was in a coma until May 29, then was arrested and found to have breached the conditions of his release. Van Camp was sent back to the Saskatchewan Penitentiary,
where he was housed in a cell with Vandewater, then 28 years old.
On June 7, 2017, Van Camp was found beaten, stabbed, and wrapped in blankets and bags in the cell. According to Cpl. Janelle Samoila’s testimony, items seized from the scene included ripped institutional towels, T-shirts, pillow cases, bed sheets, and paper and plastic bags, most of which were stained with blood. Under the bed, she saw cloths in a bag that was so wet, blood was seeping through, Dupuis told court. Blood had also “saturated all the way through the mattress,” she said.
During his testimony, Vandewater claimed he acted in self-defence, that a paranoid Van Camp lunged at him with a homemade blade before Vandewater pushed him back, and that a 60- to 90-second struggle turned fatal.
Crown prosecutor Linh Lê said she had “concerns” about elements of Vandewater’s self-defence argument, and his claim that his actions were reasonable under the circumstances.
Court heard during the trial that Van Camp had 26 wounds to his face and 25 wounds on his upper back. He died of blood loss and suffered a collapsed lung. Vandewater had light scratches on his side.
Following the guilty verdict in March, Van Camp’s mother, Lauren Laithwaite, said she would be open to an explanation or an apology from Vandewater.
“There are no winners here, just loss on both sides,” she said.
On Friday, Laithwaite said the time since her son’s death has been “a horrible nightmare ... I lost a part of my heart that day. It’s unnatural for a parent to bury their child. It’s also unbearable to think of the way he died, and that he was alone. I take relief that he was probably unconscious for most of it.”