Supreme Court sends Mr. Big case back for B.C. appeal court to reconsider
Posted Feb 26, 2015 12:03:04 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
OTTAWA – Then Supreme Court of Canada is telling the British Columbia Court of Appeal to take another look at a murder case that involved a Mr. Big sting by police.
The justices say the appeal court should reconsider the case of Gary Donald Johnston in light of a 2014 Supreme Court court decision on Mr. Big stings.
Johnston was sentenced to life with no parole eligibility for 17 years after he was found guilty in 2011 of killing a man who surprised him during a 1998 break-in.
He was only charged years after the crime when undercover police pretending to be major criminals managed to elicit an admission to the killing.
The Supreme Court last year ruled that judges must be leery of Mr. Big operations, although it didn’t bar them completely.
Johnston appealed both his conviction and sentence, but was unsuccessful.
