Travis Vader is seeking time served for his two manslaughter convictions.
As the more than two-week-long sentencing hearing wrapped up Wednesday morning the defence submitted what it thought was an appropriate calculation of pre-trial credit.
It requested the court consider more than six years in pre-trial credit for the time Vader spent both in custody and under release conditions.
Vader was found guilty of killing Lyle and Marie McCann, an elderly St. Albert couple during a robbery gone wrong on July 3, 2010 near Peers, Alberta. Their bodies have never been found.
Justice Denny Thomas reserved his sentencing decision until Jan. 25.
While the Crown is seeking life imprisonment for what they say is “as near murder as possible,” the defence is asking for a four- to six-year sentence, which, after taking into account the requested pre-trial credit, would equate time served.
“There was an exceptionally long pretrial process in this trial, due to the fact that there was this stay,” said defence attorney Nathan Whitling outside the courts. “Given the extraordinary length of pre-trial detention, it actually would amount to approximately six or 6.5 years of pre-trial credit, and we have otherwise suggested that an appropriate sentence would be six years.”
Whitling told reporters that the length of the pre-trial delays in Vader’s case were “exceptional” and that he believes they would be unacceptable under the Supreme Court’s recent Jordan decision, which sets out new rules for an accused’s right to be tried within a reasonable time frame.
“Frankly, in my view if the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision on Jordan had been released at the time that this pre-trial application was brought the matter most likely would have been stayed, but that is now an issue on appeal,” he said.
Whitling told the Court of Queen’s Bench that Vader deserved 1.5-to-one credit for his time spent in lock up and 0.5-to-one credit while under house arrest and electronic monitoring.
The Crown conceded in a written brief that Vader deserved credit for 823 days in custody, although he was detained for other charges prior to being charged of the McCanns murder in April 2012, as well as some credit for the 505 days he spent under strict release conditions.
The defence is also seeking a sentence reduction due to the “harsh conditions” Vader faced under administrative segregation while under investigation for the McCann murders and other alleged Charter right violations.
On Tuesday, Thomas dealt with part of the application, rejecting that Vader had been subjected to an unlawful strip search and saying that accused was not to be believed.
Vader testified he was naked for eight times longer than he truly was and that passerby had seen him while he was exposed. An agreed statement of fact recanted his earlier version of events.
Thomas reserved his sentencing decision for three weeks, to allow him to review all the relevant materials.
“This case is nothing if not an ever expanding record,” he said.
He will read a summary of his pronouncement in court Jan. 25.
