Law Times

Law TiMes • May 30, 2011 FOCUS PAGE 13 Jailhouse murder case notable for unorthodox tactic BY KENNETH JACKSON For Law Times I t was a pretty blond woman with a pocket full of mon- ey and promises of fame that led a convicted killer to spill the beans on an unsolved murder more than a decade af- ter the fact. It's not that she got the killer to confess but more how she was able to pull it off that made the criminal case one of a kind. Posing as a freshly graduated journalism student, a cop from Durham Regional Police signed up with the Ontario Provincial Police as an undercover offi cer to trick Phillip Vince, a man serving two life sentences at the Saskatchewan Penitentiary, into confessing to the murder of a fellow inmate on July 15, 1999, while at Millhaven Institution near Kingston, Ont. Th e cop said she was look- ing to write a book about pris- on life and had the backing of a publisher. "I had always had a passion to write a book and wanted it to be about him," the offi cer said she told Vince at their fi rst meeting in September 2009 when she testifi ed at the preliminary trial in Napanee, Ont., in February. After several meetings, Vince would begin to open up about his life in prison and eventually talked about how he planned to kill Scott Barnett by tricking him into thinking he was taking morphine capsules that actually contained cyanide. Vince killed Barnett to pre- vent his friend and fellow in- mate James MacLean from get- ting into trouble. MacLean was planning to stab Barnett on the range in front of prison cameras in order to have Barnett trans- ferred to another institution. Barnett was no better than a rat, according to MacLean. Word of the pending attack began to spread throughout the range as Vince put his plan into action. Barnett was in the yard on July 14, 1999, when he "began to foam at the mouth and vom- it. Barnett then stood up and began walking towards the in- stitution, collapsed, and started to convulse," according to the agreed statement of facts read into court in March. What he thought were two pills that would get him high for the night was anything but. Despite the bold undercover move, the case would never get to trial as the parties reached a snap plea agreement. Vince pleaded guilty to man- slaughter for his role in adminis- tering the cyanide to Barnett. He received seven years to be served concurrently to the two life sen- tences he's already serving. MacLean pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit aggra- vated assault on Barnett as part of the separate plan to seriously harm him. All parties agreed that MacLean backed out of that plan and that Vince moved forward on a separate plot to kill him. MacLean got a sentence of Courts spark debate Continued from page 8 formerly of St. Catharines, Ont., and who now lives in Toronto. Unable to get a marijuana licence for fi bromyalgia and scolio- sis, Mernagh started growing his own supply. Police later charged him with cultivating marijuana, something that's illegal under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. Mernagh also suff ers from seizures and depression. Th e three-year court battle heard from 23 witnesses who would otherwise qualify for medicinal marijuana but couldn't fi nd a doctor to sign off . Taliano also stayed the charges against Mernagh. He agreed that the man's right to liberty under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms had been violated. Mernagh can now smoke and grow cannabis after receiving an exemption. Mernagh's lawyer Paul Lewin has told media he's confi dent the Ontario Court of Appeal will uphold the decision. He's not the only one who thinks so. Toronto criminal defence lawyer Aaron Harnett says he feels there are enough problems with the program that the decision will stand. Harnett, in fact, has been involved in the issue since the be- ginning. He represented Terry Parker in the case that resulted in the landmark 1997 and 2000 rulings striking down the laws that sparked the federal medicinal marijuana program. "What I take away from the Mernagh decision was Justice Taliano's recognition that doctors have been far too conservative in their approach to medical marijuana to be eff ective gatekeep- ers," he says. "And my view is that the logical extension of what he has discovered in that case is that we should reconsider criminal- izing marijuana possession in general." Harnett believes the work carried out in the courts ignites the debate. At the same time, he thinks science and the facts will move Canada in what he calls the "right direction." Neuberger also believes legalizing pot is a legitimate issue to con- sider. "Why is opium, which is a far more addictive and potentially destructive chemical . . . so easy to obtain and marijuana is much harder [but has a] much lower chance of addiction?" he asks. In his view, there should at least be eff orts to properly regulate marijuana and allow for more licensed dealers through venues such as compassion clubs. www.lawtimesnews.com CANADA LAW BOOK® Phillip Vince's existing life sentences meant he likely wouldn't serve additional time despite the confession, says Daniel Brown. time served based on the eight months he had already spent in pretrial custody. "What made this prosecu- tion unique is that it relied al- most exclusively on the words of Mr. Vince, who admitted to participating in the murder only after he was falsely promised a large sum of money [by way of a book deal], fame, and immunity from prosecution to implicate himself and others in the plot to kill Scott Barnett," says Toronto lawyer Daniel Brown, who rep- resented MacLean. MacLean, who at the time of the mur- der was serving a 10-year sen- tence for a string of robberies, was arrested in June last year. Th e OPP released a press re- lease last year saying police had made arrests in the case through a "new investigative strategy" to nab Vince at the Saskatchewan facility near Prince Albert. It would later come out that the force was referring to the under- cover cop posing as a reporter. Vince had been transferred out West four years after Bar- nett's murder. "An investigation like this is important not just for the in- mates . . . but also for the staff and family, friends, and loved ones who have connections with both staff and inmates," OPP Det.-Insp. Dave Quigley told the Toronto Star outside court after the surprise plea agreement. But according to Brown, the Crown had little choice but to make a deal. "Th e con- cerns with [Vince's] statements to police are that none of his version of events could be in- dependently corroborated, nor did he have anything to lose in providing the account to po- lice," says Brown. Brown says the cop posing as a reporter promised Vince immunity through a journal- istic clause that doesn't exist. Vince believed that by talking to the reporter, despite her pur- ported plan to write a book, he couldn't be held accountable. Also, Brown notes that the fact that Vince was already serving two separate life sen- tences likely meant the court system couldn't add to the pun- ishment he was already facing for his previous crimes. "Th is case also relied in part on sev- eral unsavoury jailhouse infor- mants who all stood to gain something from the police by providing the police the story they wanted to hear," he says. "Th is made their evidence of little worth." 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