Two men were found not guilty Monday of first-degree murder charges stemming from a shooting that killed an innocent Shuswap couple near Cranbrook in 2010.
Colin Raymond Correia and Sheldon Joseph Hunter stood trial on allegations they murdered Leanne Laura MacFarlane and Jeffrey Todd Taylor.
Emergency crews were called to a report of a shooting in a rural area just outside Cranbrook on May 29, 2010. MacFarlane was dead at the scene and Taylor died later in hospital.
The Crown’s theory is that the couple was slain by mistake. At trial, prosecutors said the murderers were planning to kill a member of a rival criminal organization. MacFarlane and Taylor were shot to death inside their townhouse, which was previously occupied by the intended target, court heard.
“The two victims were not involved in the drug business in any way or at any level,” B.C. Supreme Court Justice Arne Silverman said in his decision, read on Monday morning in court in Vancouver.
“They were tragically innocent victims in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Silverman said the evidence presented at trial — a largely circumstantial Crown case — left him with doubt as to the guilt of Correia and Hunter.
“I am not satisfied that the two accused persons are innocent,” he said.
“However, I am also not satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that they are guilty.”
Silverman pointed to holes in the credibility of an important Crown witness and cellphone records that show Hunter could have been in a different location when the murders took place.
MacFarlane and Taylor had recently moved to the Cranbrook area from Salmon Arm when they were shot to death.
Silverman described the trial as “long and difficult” in his decision. It started with arguments in September of 2019 and concluded last December.
Correia and Hunter had been in custody since their arrests in 2018. Both men will now be released.
