A B.C. Supreme Court Justice has found a man not guilty of a murder in Williams Lake after determining that a key witness was unable to confirm beyond reasonable doubt that he was a culprit.
Michael Drynock had been facing a count of first-degree murder in the August 2019 death of Branton Regner as well as counts of attempted murder and kidnapping of Regner's girlfriend, Chantelle Laplante.
Co-accused Jason Gilbert is to be sentenced on a count of second-degree murder in September. Counts against Jordell Sellars from the incident were stayed in October 2021.
Regner and Laplante had been forced off a bridge in the community of 11,505 people 236 kilometres south of Prince George sometime over the night of Aug. 8-9, 2019.
More than two weeks later, Regner's body was recovered some 50 kilometres downstream.
Laplante was able to swim to a nearby island where she spent the night. In the morning, she swam to shore, climbed up a cliff and made her way to a farmhouse where she got help.
According to Crown prosecution, Regner had been invited to a barbecue but, when he accepted a ride to the gathering, he was instead taken to a trailer where he was to be beaten up, restrained and then taken to the bridge and dumped into the Fraser River.
When Laplante agreed to come along with Regner, her fate was also sealed, the Crown submitted, as she would now be a witness to Regner's death.
At issue was whether Laplante's identification of Drynock met the standard for criminal conviction.
In a judgment issued August 10, Justice Carol Ross found Laplante to be a credible witness but, noting inconsistencies between her statements to police and testimony at trial, questioned the reliability of her memory.
Laplante's observations at the time of the incident were made in the dark of night, as events were quickly unfolding and under terrifying circumstances, Ross concluded, noting in part that at one point, another person had pointed a handgun at Laplante's head which may have distracted her from getting a proper look at the man she thought was Drynock.
Ross also noted that the man Laplante identified as Drynock sat in the front seat of the car that took her and Regner to the bridge while she sat in the back seat and had Regner had been forced into the trunk.
There was no suggestion they interacted during the drive and nowhere in Laplante's testimony does she suggest that the man looked back at her or kept an eye on her during the drive to the bridge.
The only face-to-face look she had at the man she suspected was Drynock was for a very brief period and in conditions so dark she could barely see his eyes.
Ross also noted Laplante's addiction to methamphetamine at the time and concluded any encounters she may have had with Drynock in the days and weeks before the incident were brief at best. She was able to provide only the "most generic of descriptions" and in contrast to the "very detailed and accurate description" she provided of Gilbert.
Laplante had to be more than "probably correct in her identification" to reach the standard for criminal conviction, Ross said, and went on to find there was a "reasonable possibility" that Laplante was mistaken in her identification of Drynock.
