JUSTICE SERVED
Man accused of killing Monica Jack over 40 years ago found guilty of murder
Cheers went up in a Vancouver courtroom Thursday as a jury convicted a man of murdering a 12-year-old girl more than 40 years ago.
The B.C. Supreme Court jury found Garry Taylor Handlen guilty of the May 1978 first-degree murder of Monica Jack, who disappeared while riding her bicycle near Merritt.
The verdict came after 2½ days of deliberations and a trial that began before a 14-member jury in October. Two of the jurors were dropped before the start of deliberations.
There were also tears in the courtroom as members of the Jack family arrived in the public gallery to hear the verdict.
Outside court after the verdict, Madeline Lanaro, the victim’s mom, told reporters that she would not be commenting until she had a chance to get her thoughts together.
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Austin Cullen, the trial judge, thanked the jury for their work and set a date for sentencing on Jan. 28. First-degree murder carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison with no parole eligibility for 25 years.
The Crown’s case was based largely on a confession to the murder that Handlen, who was initially a suspect but never charged, made following an elaborate police sting known as a Mr. Big undercover operation.
Handlen, by then living in Ontario, was introduced to what he believed was a criminal organization and taken through a series of scenarios run by the fictitious gang.
At the end of the scenarios in 2014, Handlen told the “crime boss” or Mr. Big that he had abducted Monica while she was riding her bicycle near Nicola Lake.
He said he put her in his truck and camper and took her up a mountain before strangling her. The Crown alleged she was sexually assaulted before being murdered.
At trial, Handlen’s lawyers argued that the police had manipulated him and that he’d made a false confession. One of Handlen’s lawyers declined to comment outside court Thursday.
What the jury didn’t hear was that Handlen also had been charged with the murder of a second girl, 11-yearold Kathryn-Mary Herbert. That girl went missing walking near her home in Matsqui in September 1975. Her body was found several months later in a remote area underneath a piece of plywood.
Outside court Thursday, a Crown spokeswoman said the issue of the murder count involving the Herbert girl would be addressed before Handlen’s sentencing.
The jury also did not hear that Handlen had a record of sexual violence stretching back to 1963. His record, excluded at trial because it would have been seen as evidence he would be more likely to commit murder, included an assault in 1969 on a 17-year-old girl when he was 21 years old, using a knife to coerce her.
In 1971, he used a knife to abduct an 18-year-old, take her to a secluded area and rape her. He got 5½ years for that offence and was on parole for that rape when it was alleged he committed the Herbert homicide.
In September 1978, he was convicted of the rape of a 21-year-old female hitchhiker he had picked up near Manning Park.
He was sentenced to 18 years in prison for that offence but had it reduced on appeal to 12 years and he was released on mandatory supervision in 1987.
The hitchhiker rape victim was in court Thursday and spoke outside about the impact of the crime on her.
“I spent 20 years using drugs and alcohol to find a way to cope with that.”
She said that although the justice system worked to convict Handlen of the Jack murder, she believes the slaying should never have happened.
“He was on bail when he killed Monica Jack. He has a history of sexual assault. Why was he let on bail with a history like his?”