A man charged after a multi-million-dollar drug bust in Winnipeg last month had previously been convicted of murder in the shooting deaths of his parents, Global News has learned.
James Daniel Perlett, 43, and another man are facing a long list of drug charges after police say officers found $2.2 million worth of meth and cocaine during a raid at a Winnipeg apartment.
The arrests followed a months-long investigation into a city drug ring, said police.
Court records show Perlett was found guilty in 1999 for the killings of his mother and father, who were shot to death while asleep in their bed at their Fort Frances, Ont. home in 1996.
Perlett, who was 19 at the time, was also found in the home with a gunshot wound to the abdomen.
Perlett said a masked intruder shot his parents and then shot him as he struggled with the man and tried to seize the murder weapon.
But police didn’t believe the story and Perlett was charged with two counts of first-degree murder.
At trial, prosecutors argued the physical evidence at the murder scene undermined Perlett’s story and suggested his involvement. They said he fabricated the story and shot himself to cover up the murders.
Perlett was ultimately convicted of two counts of second-degree murder and given a life sentence with no chance of parole for 18 years.