Jury sequestered for deliberations in Vancouver Island prison escapee's murder trial

A B.C. Supreme Court judge spent Tuesday afternoon giving final instructions to the jury in the first-degree murder trial of a man accused of killing a Vancouver Island man after walking away from a minimum security prison in July of 2019.

The trial began a month ago with two defendants but took a sudden turn halfway through when the judge advised that one of the men would be dealt with separately.

An agreed statement of facts between the defence and the Crown states that James Lee Busch and Zachary Armitage escaped from William Head Institution in Metchosin on July 7.

The Crown alleges both men took part in the killing of 60-year-old Martin Payne in his Metchosin home the next day.

Busch is the only one currently on trial and Justice David Crossin has advised the jury it would be inappropriate to speculate as to why Armitage is no longer part of the proceedings.

Neither of the accused took the stand during the four-week trial.

In presenting what it openly acknowledged was a mostly circumstantial case, the Crown called a number of witnesses, including DNA experts, blood splatter analysts and pathologists.

In his closing remarks, Busch’s lawyer Ryan Drury told the jury there are three possible scenarios they should consider and that each of them allows for reasonable doubt about whether his client is guilty.

Drury said the first possibility is that Busch was not in Payne's home at the time of the killing.

The second possibility he presented was that Busch was in the home but did not take part in the forcible confinement and murder of Payne.

For his the third scenario, Drury suggested the jury should consider the possibility that Busch was there but that participating in an attempted cleanup of the crime scene was his only involvement.

Crossin spent Tuesday afternoon giving the jury their final instructions before they began deliberating.

According to Vancouver criminal lawyer Sarah Leamon, those instructions are a critical part of any trial because if there are any appeals later by the Crown or defence, they may hinge on what the judge said or didn’t say to the jury before they began deliberations.

"Of course, jury deliberations are privileged which means we won't know what the jury talks about in that room prior to making their decision,” Leamon said. “But, grounds of appeal can be based on what the jury was instructed to do by the judge."

In order for Busch to be either convicted or acquitted, the eight men and four women on the jury must come to a unanimous decision.

If they are unable to do that Crossin will have to declare a mistrial.