Ricky John Smith opted for trial by judge alone Monday for his retrial of a 2004 murder in the parking lot of a Prince George fast food restaurant.
In March 2006, Smith had been found guilty of the second-degree murder of Brent Melanson, who bled to death in the early morning hours of Oct. 30, 2004 after he was allegedly cut in the neck with a machete in the parking lot of the Third Avenue Dairy Queen.
Smith was sentenced to life without eligibility for parole for at least 13 years and co-accused Cameron Alexander Miller was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to four years behind bars.
However, the verdict for Smith was overturned on appeal after it was found B.C. Supreme Court Justice Ian Meiklem, "unfairly and inaccurately" summarized evidence from one of the forensic pathologists when giving instructions to the jury.
Smith had admitted to using a rough-edged machete during an altercation with Melanson and Dr. James McNaughton, the forensic pathologist who conducted the autopsy, concluded that all six wounds were inflicted with the weapon.
But a forensic pathologist called by the defence, Dr. Nancy Rice, cast doubt on whether the source of several of the injuries and in particular killing blow.
The justices found that Meiklem, "unfairly emphasized" McNaughton's opportunity to observe Melanson's wounds at the autopsy and "improperly expressed his own view" that Rice's evidence was limited because she relied on photographs to assess the wounds.
Meiklem's comments were not "overly directive" in that he did not tell the jury they must ignore Rice's evidence, the justices found, but his repeated comments "nevertheless strongly suggested" that McNaughton's evidence should be accepted, thereby "inappropriately discounting" Rice's opinions.
The incident began in the early morning hours of Oct. 30, 2004 when Smith, then 20 years old, and Miller, then 20, attended a Halloween weekend party at an apartment building in the 1800 block of Fourth Avenue. Smith, who brought a machete with him, sprayed beer on Melanson's younger sister and in response, she called her brother to pick her up at a spot near Duchess Park school.
According to an agreed statement of fact read into court record Monday, Melanson, 20, arrived in his pickup truck with his fiancee, Nicole Middlemiss, and decided to confront the party-goers, even though his sister and fiancee urged him not to.
When they pulled up to a parking lot behind the building, the party-goers, one carrying a baseball bat, began hitting Melanson's truck and Smith struck the truck with his machete. Melanson drove away to a pay phone at the Dairy Queen to call the police.
Smith and Miller left the party shortly afterwards as passengers in a vehicle with two girls and when they saw Melanson's truck, got out and ran towards it.
Melanson got back into his truck and Smith used the machete to break the driver's side window. Meanwhile, two RCMP officers who were traveling along Third Avenue in response to a complaint about the party were flagged down by Middlemiss, who did not have time to get into the vehicle, only to see Smith and Miller running away and find Melanson bleeding from his neck.
What happened between the window smashing and the RCMP officer's arrival is the subject of the trial.
