R v J (2017)
Mr Rice has been retained by J in this case involving two homicide investigations in Alberta and British Columbia. On July 20, 2014, D was walking in a commercial neighbourhood in Edmonton with some friends when he encountered a group of males. A verbal exchange turned fatal when D was shot. On October 2, 2014, over three months later, P was found dead in a house in Richmond, BC which the RCMP believed had ties to the Edmonton investigation. With the aid of an informant wearing a wire, and two other wiretap authorizations in Alberta and British Columbia, the police allege that the homicide investigations eventually led to evidence of other shootings and home invasions. On March 28, 2015, J was charged with over fifty offences arising out of the Alberta homicide investigation. The case raises unusual complications arising from the extra-provincial implementation of a wiretap authorization under s 188.1 of the Criminal Code. Pretrial motions have been scheduled in the Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta in Edmonton.
R v W (2016)
A school bus driver spotted a frozen body near the side of a rural road in central Alberta and called the police. The deceased died from multiple stab wounds and was reported missing. W was arrested the next day driving the deceased’s truck in a city south of the scene. He was with a group of drinking companions. Witnesses who were with W the night before the body was found all said he was drinking heavily. Mr Rice retained a forensic psychologist who concluded that W was incapable of forming the specific intent to commit murder due to alcohol consumption. Based on the anticipated eye witness testimony, and the expert opinion of the psychologist, the Crown Attorney accepted a guilty plea to manslaughter on the morning of jury selection. The case was adjourned for the preparation of briefs and a pre-sentence report. The sentence hearing has been scheduled in 2017.
R v K C & F (2016)
Mr Rice has been retained by one of the three defendants in this homicide case involving charges of second degree murder, use of a firearm in the commission of an indictable offence and assault with a weapon. A motor vehicle with five occupants pulled into a strip mall at night and stopped in a secluded parking lot. D was in the backseat with his girlfriend. Another girl was in the front passenger seat. Two masked men armed with handguns and carrying baseball bats got out of a vehicle that stopped behind them. The girl in the front fled when the masked men closed in, opened the driver’s side rear door and began assaulting D with the bats. D was then fatally shot in the chest. The vehicle sped away from the scene to a condominium parking lot where D’s body was dropped on the pavement near a garbage bin shelter. The vehicle then disappeared into the night. The media reported that the shooting was fuelled by a drug debt. A date for a preliminary inquiry has not been set.
R v P & B (2014)
The Edmonton Institution is a maximum security penitentiary located just north of Edmonton. Known as “the Max” it generally houses prisoners serving long sentences for serious crimes. In this case, P & B were inmates charged with first degree murder as a result of the stabbing death of another inmate in his cell. The state’s evidence included video surveillance footage of the range where the deceased’s cell was located, fingerprints and the evidence of two other inmates who testified at the preliminary inquiry. However, the Crown Attorney was still faced with difficulties in proving the specific intent to cause death or bodily harm likely to cause death which are alternative requirements in the definition of murder under s 229 of the Criminal Code. On the other hand, both defendants were facing life sentences and long terms of parole ineligibility if convicted of either first or second degree murder. Following protracted negotiations, both defendants pleaded guilty to manslaughter and avoided the possibility of more severe consequences. A guilty plea to manslaughter is always a compelling alternative to risking snake eyes.
R v M & L (1996)
The two men in this case were convicted at trial for the stabbing death of a fellow inmate at the Drumheller Penitentiary east of Calgary. M testified that the deceased had initiated various threats against him over a period of time during which the tension in the prison rose to the point where he killed him in self-defence. L was alleged to have assisted M and was convicted as a party to the stabbing under s 21 of the Criminal Code. It was a preemptive strike. L retained Mr Rice for the appeal. The appeals of both men to the Alberta Court of Appeal were dismissed and Mr Rice took the case to the Supreme Court of Canada. The Supreme Court granted the appeal for the reasons of the dissenting judge in the Court of Appeal. The dissenting judge had held that the trial judge was mistaken in his charge to the jury in that the jury may have thought that the physical part of the assault against M had to be imminent or immediate. A new trial was ordered.