Supreme Court has sentenced two Calgary men who killed their homeowner

The Supreme Court of Canada has upheld the convictions of two Calgarians who killed their homeowner.

Brian Lambert and James Beaver were found guilty in the 2016 death of 33-year-old roommate and landlord Sutton Bowers. They were sentenced to four years in prison.

But the men appealed, saying their confessions to police were the result of violating the statute.

The Alberta Court of Appeal upheld their convictions, but the Supreme Court of Canada agreed to hear the appeals.

In a 5-4 split decision on Friday, the nation's highest court found the couple's confessions admissible and rejected their appeals.

A few weeks before Bowers' death, he had fought with Beaver and Lambert.

On October 8, 2016, Lambert and Bowers got into a fight over money. Beaver joined in, and the fight turned into a two-by-two attack.

Bowers was punched, grabbed by the neck and kicked in the stomach. His head hit the floor.

Beaver and Lambert then cleaned up the blood and then placed Bowers' body at the bottom of the stairs to make authorities think he had fallen.

The next morning, Beaver called 911 and said she found Bowers dead at her home.

Police arrived and arrested Beaver and Lambert. They questioned the men on their way to CPS headquarters and did not advise the pair of their rights to a lawyer.

“New Beginning” Police Interrogation

When homicide detectives took over, they realized the men's statutory rights had been violated and tried to make a “fresh start” by advising the man of his rights.

Attorneys Kelsey Sitar and Jennifer Ruth argued in their appeals that the police failed to “fresh start” from earlier Charter violations stemming from their illegal arrests and asked the court to exclude the confessions because they were obtained in violation of the law. rights of their clients.

The SCC ruled that the police had reasonable and probable cause to arrest Beaver and Lambert.

The majority found that the police had successfully made a “fresh start” in arresting Lambert, but not Beaver.

However, the court ruled that the admission of Beaver's confession into evidence would not prejudice the administration of justice and that both confessions should not be excluded.