The Nova Scotia Court of Appeal has upheld a lower court decision that found that police used intimidation tactics against a woman who was accused of being an accessory after the fact in the murder of Stacey Jordan Adams in April 2011.
The 20-year-old was shot to death in Lake Echo. His body was found in a parked car outside a house on Shadewell Lane, near Mineville Road.
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Police launched an extensive manhunt in 2011 for Steven Skinner, who was charged with second-degree murder in Adams’ death.
Skinner was eventually apprehended by police on Margarita Island in Venezuela in the spring of 2016.
READ MORE: Steven Skinner, wanted in Stacey Adams murder, arrested in Venezuela
Brittany Leigh Derbyshire was charged with being an accessory after the fact for allegedly helping Skinner flee the province and dispose of evidence.
Her case went to trial in 2014. She was acquitted in 2015 after arguing police tactics amounted to an abuse of power.
Two undercover police officers posed as members of an outlaw motorcycle gang sent from Montreal to “deal with the mess made by Skinner.”
The two officers — both large men dressed in high-end designer clothes and jewelry to mimic the dress of gang members — approached Derbyshire in the parking garage of her apartment building.
She told the court she felt intimidated and that she talked to the undercover operators out of fear of being labelled a “rat” by the outlaw motorcycle gang. She said she feared for herself and her family after one of the officers commented on a group of family photos in her apartment.
Derbyshire told the undercover cops she drove Skinner to Moncton where he allegedly disposed of he murder weapon. Its believed Skinner then flew from Moncton to Vancouver then on to Mexico. Derbyshire showed the officers where she allegedly disposed of more evidence in Fall River.
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Nova Scotia Supreme Court Justice Wood found that police tactics used on Derbyshire violated her right to silence and self-incrimination under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
He ordered the evidence obtained by the undercover police be excluded from trial. That order dealt a crushing blow to the Crown’s case. Derbyshire was eventually acquitted of the charge.
The Crown appealed the decision to exclude the evidence to the province’s top court last year. The Court of Appeal heard the case this spring but the decision was just released this week.
The Supreme Court of Canada has been clear on the use of evidence obtained through so-called “Mr. Big” sting operations.
The Supreme Court of Canada ruled that evidence obtained by undercover operatives in a Mr. Big sting is presumptively inadmissable. The onus falls on the Crown to prove the value of the evidence outweighs its prejudicial impact on the accused. It must also not cross the line into abusive conduct or unfair coercion.
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In a unanimous decision written by Justice Duncan Beveridge, the panel of three Court of Appeal judges said Justice Wood did the correct thing by tossing out the evidence obtained by the undercover officers writing: “I fail to see any other remedy that would protect the integrity of the justice system in light of Justice Wood’s factual findings.”
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