In Calgary courts: Hearing to determine if youth killer to be sentenced as adult delayed as defence seeking autism report

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Sentencing of a Calgary youth convicted in the execution-style killing of a fellow teen has been delayed so the defence can obtain an assessment which may block the Crown seeking an adult punishment.

Defence counsel Andrea Urquhart asked court on Wednesday to adjourn her client’s sentencing hearing which was set to proceed on Thursday.

Urquhart noted a court-ordered psychiatric assessment of her client found he may be on the autism spectrum and she wants an expert to examine him for that purpose.

“It’s incumbent on me to explore,” she told Justice Paul Jeffrey.

The prosecution has indicated it will be seeking an adult sentence for Urquhart’s client, now 19, who was convicted of second-degree murder in the March 31, 2022, fatal shooting of Jal Acor Jal.

The offender shot Jal, 16, once in the back of the head when the two teens went to a secluded area near a substation by the Crowfoot LRT station that evening.

Urquhart noted the first hurdle the Crown has to jump in order to get an adult sentence is to rebut the presumption of diminished moral blameworthiness or culpability of a young offender.

“The first prong is all about diminished moral blameworthiness,” she said.

“We know if that diagnosis is present it does impact reasoning,” Urquhart said.

“A potential diagnosis of autism impacts that first question of moral blameworthiness.”

Urquhart said she has already arranged for a doctor to conduct an assessment of her client to determine if he does indeed fall into the autism spectrum.

Thursday’s hearing was for lawyers for both sides to make submissions on whether an adult, or youth sentence is appropriate in the case.

Under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, the maximum sentence for second-degree murder is seven years comprised of four in custody and three under conditional supervision in the community.

If sentenced as an adult the youth would receive an automatic life sentence with parole ineligibility set at between five and seven years.

Urquhart’s client, who is free on bail, was not in court for Wednesday’s adjournment application.

A new date for the sentencing hearing will be set Friday.

Top court upholds conviction of man who tried to extort businesswoman after breaking into her home

Convictions against a Calgary man who tried to extort millions from a prominent city businesswoman after breaking into her home have been upheld.

A three-member Alberta Court of Appeal panel on Monday found Justice Heather Lamoureux made no errors in law in convicting Tyler Miller Smith-Lowe of multiple offences.

In their written decision, the appeal judges rejected arguments by defence counsel Andrea Serink that Lamoureux erred in applying the principles applicable to circumstantial evidence and failed to consider other plausible theories inconsistent with her client’s guilt.

Smith-Lowe was convicted of breaking into the southwest Calgary home of Valerie and Mitchell Grossman on Oct. 24, 2021, and making threatening phone calls in a bid to extort cash from the prominent businesswoman, founder of Health Reach Canada Inc.

Lamoureux ruled Smith-Lowe broke into the couple’s residence three days earlier, although he was not convicted of that crime, and then made a series of phone calls to their landline and the wife’s cellphone.

In those calls, Smith-Lowe demanded $1 million in cash as well as 30 kilograms of German gold bars, worth more than $5 million, or he would harm the Grossmans. He also made antisemitic comments to them.

“There cannot be any other reasonable inference drawn from the vast amount of circumstantial evidence introduced into this trial other than the identity of the perpetrator for every single offence in the information is Tyler Smith-Lowe,” Lamoureux said in her Aug. 29, 2023, verdict.

“The only reasonable inference to be drawn is that the accused was the perpetrator who broke into and entered the Grossman residence on two occasions … the accused was the individual who stole items from the Grossman residence during the break-in, (and) the accused was the individual who made the calls of intimidation and extortion to the Grossmans.”

Lamoureux sentenced Smith-Lowe to 3½ years, despite calls from Crown prosecutor Donna Spaner for a 10-year term.

The appeal judges noted evidence showed all the calls to the residence and the wife’s cell, which was listed on a business card in the residence, came from a number that an expert was able to track to Smith-Lowe.

“The expert’s evidence was not impeached in cross-examination and was accepted by the trial judge,” they wrote.

Smith-Lowe was arrested on the afternoon of the second break-in with the cellphone in a satchel around his neck.

“The trial judge found as a fact that the calls and text messages received at the Grossman landline and cellphone were sent from the phone in the possession of the appellant.”

Hearing to determine if anti-drag Calgary preacher breached his conditional sentence order set for new year

Anti-drag event crusader Derek Reimer will face a Jan. 5, hearing to determine if he breached his conditional sentence order, including court-ordered house arrest.

That date was set Monday over objections from Reimer’s lawyer, Andrew MacKenzie, who wanted the hearing held this week.

But Justice Sandra Mah declined to entertain an application by MacKenzie to order Crown prosecutor Matt Dalidowicz to proceed sooner, telling the lawyer to take his case to the associate chief justice.

MacKenzie said given time constraints, that would be impractical, so his client’s hearing will be held outside the normal 30-day period from time of arrest.

Dalidowicz asked that the matter be put before Justice Karen Molle, who isn’t available until the new year, as she was the one who placed Reimer on a one-year conditional sentence last Dec. 23.

“The Crown’s position is the matter should be adjourned to a date when Justice Molle can hear the CSO breach hearing,” the prosecutor said.

Dalidowicz said while the Criminal Code allows such applications to be heard by other judges “the preference is before the original justice because of judicial economy.”

Molle being familiar with the case will streamline the hearing.

Reimer was arrested Dec. 3, for allegedly committing five breaches of his conditional sentence, including a house arrest provision, by stopping outside the Calgary Courts Centre to give a media interview after a court appearance.

One of the exceptions to his house arrest is for court and travel to and from proceedings. Reimer was previously found in breach for preaching on the courthouse steps after an appearance.

He is also accused of indirectly communicating with the library manager he was convicting of harassing about an upcoming Reading with Royalty drag event by commenting about her on an internet post.

He was released last week on conditions including that he make no social media comments pending retrial on charges relating to a separate Reading with Royalty event.

KMartin@postmedia.com

X: @KMartinCourts