B.C. prison escapee gets life with no parole for 25 years in murder case; apologizes to victim's family

A man who murdered a Vancouver Island father after escaping from a minimum security federal institution has been sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.

Zachary Armitage initially pleaded not-guilty to the first-degree murder of 60-year-old Martin Payne, but flipped his plea part way through the trial.

His co-defendant James Lee Busch was found guilty by a 12-person jury in December, and handed the same sentence.

THE CRIME

According to an agreed statement of facts, on July 7, 2019, the pair escaped from William Head institution by walking along the shoreline at low tide.

The next morning, Payne left his Metchosin home for work at around 6:15 a.m.

At roughly 6:37 a.m., Busch and Armitage broke into the home and waited for Payne to return from work.

When he did that afternoon, the pair assaulted him and attempted to tie him down with duct tape.

However, when that failed, they killed him with a hatchet and a large knife.

A note found in the home that read “What is your pins for cards?” had Armitage’s fingerprints on it.

THE SENTENCING

Wednesday, Payne's friends and family members delivered emotional victim impact statements.

“I have been given a life sentence," said Payne's eldest daughter Calla. "My future children have been given a life-sentence. There will be no parole for us, no way to escape the prison that we have been thrown into.”

Catherine Stewart, the mother of Payne's children, called him the patriarch of the family and said she doesn't understand why he had to die in such an “inhumane and evil way.”

Justice David Crossin said the killing was “senseless” and “absolutely cowardly, without qualification.”

Armitage’s sentence came without surprise, as the first-degree conviction comes with the mandatory life term without parole for 25 years. His decision to address Payne’s family, however, caught many in the courtroom off-guard.

While standing in the prisoners' box, Armitage turned around to face the family in the front row, looked them directly in the eyes, and in a soft tone said:

“I’m disgusted in myself for the pain I caused on you guys. It’s horrific. Disgusting. I hate myself for what I did … I'd give my life for his because of the pain I’ve caused you. I’m sorry.”

Outside B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver, Payne’s youngest daughter Jessica reacted to Armitage’s remarks.

"I don’t think I quite have the words to articulate what it meant at this point, but it was very meaningful and it felt incredibly genuine, actually,” she said. “That meant a lot to all of us, and it will be something that helps us to move forward.”

Payne’s sister Colleen, who addressed Armitage during her victim impact statement, telling him she hopes he seeks help while incarcerated, said she was pleasantly surprised with his apology.

“I felt the genuineness of how he felt,” she said. “That he was truly sorry for what he’d done."

"He's worthwhile," she added. "Somewhere in there, he is worthwhile, and he can get help, and I hope he does.”

Armitage’s treatment of the family was quite different from that of Busch, who went on a profanity-laced tirade directed at both them and the jury after he was found guilty in December.

“We got a very different sense from the two different accused,” said Jessica. “We always felt, throughout the process, that Zachary was more likely to offer sincere engagement with us than Busch would.”

“We felt a lot of disrespect from Busch,” she said.

WHAT’S NEXT

With the criminal proceedings now over, Payne’s daughters say they’ll try to move forward the best they can.

"We rebuild our family like we've been doing for the last three and a half years,” said Jessica. “Trying to move on, not move on obviously from the memory of my father, but from all this ordeal from the trauma involved just in court."

“The next step is looking at how these people were allowed to escape in the first place,” said Calla. “How were they able to commit the crime that they chose to commit?”

The sisters have filed a civil lawsuit against the Correctional Service of Canada, stating that due their violent histories, the two men should not have been moved to a minimum-security prison.

Busch was serving a life-sentence for the second-degree murder of a woman in 2010, while Armitage was serving a 14-year prison term for a violent aggravated assault and robbery.

The claim also states that William Head failed to adequately supervise the inmates and prevent their escape.

CSC has responded, disputing those claims.