Still Missing Canada - Taylor Samson, 22, Halifax, NS, 15 Aug 2015 *Retrial 2023 Guilty*

[JusticeWillBeServed]

Halifax court jammed by prospective jurors for Dalhousie medical student’s murder trial

http://globalnews.ca/news/3385311/jury-selection-starts-in-murder-trial-of-dalhousie-medical-student/

About 315 people packed the hallways at Nova Scotia Supreme Court, crowding into two courtrooms as William Sandeson faces trial in the 2015 death of Taylor Samson, a 22-year-old Dalhousie physics student.

Judge Josh Arnold presided over the exemptions for dozens of prospective jurors who asked to be excused from serving due to health, financial hardship, language or other issues. He was also to hear from people who wanted to be exempted because they had some connection to the case.

By midday, dozens of people had either been dismissed or deferred to other jury pools this summer or fall. It’s expected that a jury of 14 members will be selected sometime Wednesday.

Arnold said lawyers in the case expected the trial to last 32 court days, ending possibly on June 13.

 

[JusticeWillBeServed]

Dal student's murder trial told of marijuana deal between suspect and victim

A Dalhousie University student on trial for murder negotiated a marijuana deal worth tens of thousands of dollars with the fellow student he is accused of killing, a prosecutor told a Halifax jury Thursday.

In her opening remarks in the case, Crown attorney Susan MacKay said police later found Taylor Samson's blood on a bullet lodged in the window frame of William Sandeson's apartment.

She said Sandeson and Samson are together in the video, which is part of a security system Sandeson had hooked up to a DVR in his bedroom.

MacKay said Samson is seen in the video carrying a large black duffel bag. She said text messages between the two men will reveal they negotiated a drug deal: 20 pounds of marijuana for $40,000 in cash. MacKay told the jury the marijuana was actually worth $90,000.

Samson's mother, Linda Boutilier, was the first witness to testify. She told court she became concerned when Samson failed to show up for Sunday dinner. She said she travelled to Halifax from her home in Amherst to join in the search for Samson. She and his friends wandered the streets of south-end Halifax, looking in hedges and dumpsters.

The rest of the first day of witnesses was taken up by police officers describing the early hours of their search for Samson. They told court how they couldn't find his phone, but were able to get the number of the last call he was on. The trail led them to a group home in Lower Sackville, N.S.

Taylor Samson's DNA found on gun, bullet at William Sandeson's apartment: Crown

MacKay said the jury would see video from Sandeson’s surveillance system that shows him walking out of his apartment with a few items, and she said police determined his cellphone was in Truro that morning. Sandeson’s family has a farm property in Lower Truro, which was extensively searched after his arrest.

MacKay said police found items at that property that were “recognizable” from the video from his apartment – including a shower curtain, a pair of gloves, and a “large, black, hockey-style duffel bag with a ripped shoulder strap.”

“DNA found at the scene contained a profile that matched the DNA profile of Taylor Samson,” she told the jury.

After his police interview, Sandeson let police take photos of text messages on his phone between he and Samson, MacKay said. When police got a chance to review them, MacKay said “they suddenly became very concerned” and realized, contrary to what Sandeson told police – that he’d planned to meet Samson for a small amount of marijuana, but Samson hadn’t showed up – the messages showed they were meeting for a much larger deal.

That evening, MacKay said police made “an emergency entrance” into Sandeson’s apartment “because they were concerned that Mr. Samson might be being held hostage there.” He wasn’t, she said, but police found and unplugged Sandeson’s surveillance system, and then secured the apartment while they waited for a warrant to search it.

That night, Sandeson was arrested.

“Initially, he denied knowing what had happened to Mr. Samson,” MacKay said. “Later, he gave police different accounts of what had happened, with the last one being that Mr. Samson had been shot in the area of the back of his head by intruders.”

When police did get a warrant, MacKay said, “forensic examination of the scene revealed several places that looked like blood or blood that had been cleaned up.”

 

[JusticeWillBeServed]

Dal student accused of murder says victim was a no-show at final meeting

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/murder-trial-first-degree-murder-william-sandeson-taylor-samson-1.4082483

When contacted by police, Sandeson agreed to go to the Halifax police station to tell them what he knew about the missing man.

RCMP Sgt. Charla Keddy took the man to what she described as a "soft" interview room, with couches and an unlocked door.

On the video, Sandeson told Keddy he last saw Samson on the previous Thursday.

He said they met to discuss a possible drug deal but Sandeson told Samson he wasn't impressed with the samples the other man showed him.

He also told police that Samson promised to find better quality drugs and they made plans to meet that Saturday. Sandeson told Keddy that meeting never took place.

 

[OkieGranny]

http://atlantic.ctvnews.ca/black-cl...-medical-student-tells-murder-trial-1.3396828

Over the last two days, the jury has seen Samson's girlfriend testify as well as an interrogation video of Sandeson on Aug 19, 2015, four days after the 22-year-old Samson went missing...

Sandeson gave varying versions of what happened in a series of police interviews -- included denying even seeing Samson, a fellow Dalhousie student, at all that night.

Then near the end of the video Wednesday, he said two men dressed in black spandex morph suits underneath street clothes came "to scare (Samson) out of dealing."

 

[gen_bug]

I have finally caught up on the beginning portion of the trial.
LadybugB, are you still following this case?

Some of the evidence and testimony thus far has matched some thoughts we had way back at the beginning, and some I was not expecting. I am very happy to learn that there was indeed CCTV!

 

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Last images of Taylor Samson shown to jury in William Sandeson murder trial: http://globalnews.ca/news/3427166/l...own-to-jury-in-william-sandeson-murder-trial/

On the evening of Aug. 15, 2015, the video shows Sandeson walking down his hallway and returning with Samson, who is carrying a large black bag with him. The two men go into Sandeson’s apartment together.

A few minutes after the men enter Sandeson’s apartment, a neighbour comes to the door. He is only there briefly and does not enter. During the course of the surveillance video, two other men can be seen walking in the hallway of the apartment building but no one else is seen going inside on the recording. [...]

The next portion of the surveillance video that was shown to the seven-man, seven-woman jury was from the following day, Aug. 16, 2015. It showed Sandeson and a woman, who Det. Const. Sayer identified in court as Sandeson’s girlfriend at the time, leaving his apartment.

In additional surveillance video, taken over the course of Aug. 16, 17, and 18, 2015, Sandeson is seen on video going in and out of his apartment. In some of the footage, he can be seen carrying a compost bin, spray bottle, large bag, backpack and a large box.

The jury also finished watching video of Sandeson's post-arrest interrogation:

First, Sandeson tells the police officer questioning him that while Samson was inside his apartment, several people broke in, stealing cash, drugs and taking Samson with them.

After several hours, he then tells police that he was aware that two men were inside his apartment when Samson arrived but only thought they were there to scare him.

According to Sandeson, the men told him to turn off his surveillance system and pulled a gun on Samson, then he heard a gunshot from another room and believes the men shot Samson in the back of the head and removed him from the apartment in a large black bag that also contained 20 pounds of marijuana.

Testimony is set to continue Monday.

 

[JusticeWillBeServed]

Neighbour testifies he heard a bang, saw blood in Sandeson's apartment

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/william-sandeson-dalhousie-student-murder-trial-week-4-1.4104231

McCabe testified that he and a friend were drinking at his apartment before heading downtown on Aug. 15, 2015 when they heard what McCabe described as a loud bang.

A short time later, there was a knock at McCabe's apartment door. It was Sandeson and he appeared to be in shock, McCabe testified.

He and his friend, Justin Blades, went out into the hall and McCabe noticed Sandeson's door was open. McCabe said he could see into the apartment and saw a man seated at the kitchen table with his back to the door.

The man's face wasn't visible, but McCabe could see blood on his back and on the floor. McCabe said he also saw cash on the floor.

He and Blades returned to his apartment, but when McCabe looked in Sandeson's apartment again a short time later, the man was still sitting there. McCabe testified the man wasn't moving.

McCabe and Blades went downtown shortly after that and never talked about what they saw, he said.

In the days immediately following Samson's disappearance, McCabe gave two statements to police in which he said he didn't see anything that night.

McCabe testified Monday he wasn't initially forthcoming because he heard Sandeson had ties to organized crime. The defence said there was no substance to those rumours.

 

[JusticeWillBeServed]

'Pints of blood' on floor in Sandeson's apartment, teammate testifies

Justin Blades was on the Dalhousie University track team with Sandeson, who has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of Samson, a fellow Dal student. Samson's body has never been found.

Blades told a Nova Scotia Supreme Court jury that he was planning to go to a party for the track team the night of Aug. 15, 2015. He dropped by the apartment of a friend, Pookiel McCabe, who lived across the hall from Sandeson.

Later, Blades and McCabe heard a loud bang that came from inside the building. Blades testified he jumped up to lock the door and then put his ear up to listen.

About a minute later, he heard a knock and a voice saying, "Hey, it's Will," Blades said.

He opened the door and Sandeson was outside. Sandeson didn't say anything, and then turned to go back inside his own apartment.

Blades said he followed Sandeson and saw a man with dark, curly hair slumped over at the kitchen table with blood "just pouring" out of him.

There was blood on the man's head and "pints and pints of blood on the floor," Blades told the court. The blood covered half the kitchen floor, he said, adding that there was no way Sandeson could have avoided stepping in it.

Blades later travelled to Yarmouth to visit family. "I felt my life was in danger," he told the court.

Police found him there and spoke with him, but Blades told them he hadn't seen or heard anything. He told the court he was afraid to speak up right away because he had heard that organized crime might be involved. It wasn't until 14 months later, in October 2016, that he spoke with police again.

In the months following the incident, Blades testified, he replayed the scene in Sandeson's apartment over and over again in his head. He said felt like he had post-traumatic stress disorder, and couldn't escape gossip about the case — even during simple trips to the grocery store.

"I've been carrying it around like the f--king plague," he said in emotional and expletive-laden testimony.

When news came out of Samson's disappearance, Blades saw the missing-person photo and thought Samson was the dead man he had seen in Sandeson's kitchen, he testified.

The last person to testify before the trial adjourned for the weekend was Nicholas Rotta-Loria.

Rotta-Loria, a Dalhousie chemistry student completing his PhD, told the jury that he learned Samson was dead on Aug. 19, 2015. As he was discussing the news with his roommates, one of them, Sandeson's younger brother Adam, said he'd just gotten off the phone with his father, who told him Sandeson had just been charged with first-degree murder.

Rotta-Loria said another roommate then asked Adam Sandeson, "Should we show him what's in the basement?"

Adam Sandeson then took him to the basement of the house they shared on Chestnut Street. There he found a backpack, a small appliance box and a grocery bag.

Rotta-Loria said he put on surgical gloves and opened the backpack. Inside, he said he found freezer bags full of marijuana. When asked why he put on the gloves, Rotta-Loria told court he watched a lot of crime shows and knew better than to handle evidence with his bare hands.

The Crown maintains Samson was killed in a "drug rip" in which 20 pounds of marijuana was stolen.

 

[JusticeWillBeServed]

Police worried missing student was in danger when Sandeson's apartment searched

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/william-sandeson-taylor-samson-first-degree-murder-trial-1.4115139

Det. Const. Jason Shannon was the Halifax Regional Police officer who kicked open the door of Sandeson's Henry Street apartment the evening of Aug. 18.

Shannon told the court that on his way to Sandeson's apartment, he noticed a surveillance camera in the hall, which he thought was unusual.

After entering the apartment, he searched a bedroom and bathroom for Samson, but didn't find anything significant. In the second bedroom, Shannon found a safe, a digital video recorder and an empty Smith & Wesson gun box.

Shannon, who testified he was not wearing gloves during the search, said he disconnected the DVR to prevent it from being erased remotely. He also lifted some ceiling tiles in the hallway to determine where camera's wiring went.

Const. Alicia Joseph of the Halifax Regional Police was on patrol in downtown Halifax when she was sent to help with the search of Sandeson's apartment. Joseph was told police were looking for Samson because he was believed to be in danger.

She started her search in the kitchen, then searched a messy bedroom, a hall closet and the bathroom. Joseph testified the bathroom was grimy but the tub was spotless, and the shower curtain was missing.

A third officer, Det. Const. Marshall Hewitt, told the court he photographed text messages between Sandeson and Samson that were found on Sandeson's phone.

"I'm out back of the building now. Is that your bike parked by the door?" reads one message from Samson's phone.

Sandeson responds, "I'm walking out now." Then, later he texts: "This isn't cool man, you said you'd be right back. Want that stuff. Don't know what you're planning."

Once the police witnesses were finished, a security expert from the mobility company Telus took the stand. Don Capito said both Samson and Sandeson had Telus phones. He told the court that data recovered from Sandeson's phone showed it was in use near Truro in the days after Samson disappeared.

Capito also said there was no activity on Samson's phone after 10:30 on the Saturday night when he was last seen alive.

 

[JusticeWillBeServed]

Murder trial told of evidence found in ice-cream truck at Sandeson farm

Det. Const. Ilya Nielsen, with the police forensic identification unit, testified Tuesday in Nova Scotia Supreme Court that he was asked on Aug. 27, 2015, to photograph items found during the search of a farm in the Truro area as police investigated Samson's disappearance.

Garbage bags and an Adidas sports bag were found inside an ice-cream truck on the farm. There was staining visible on the sports bag, Nielsen testified, and there was a strong rotting, decomposing smell coming from it.

Nielsen said police found and seized another bag that had wet towels, which were hung to dry. He took pictures of a garbage bag that had a blue tarp in it, and another garbage bag that had two yellow micro-fibre cloths and a grey one.

Nielsen said there was a shower curtain in the garbage bag and a roll of paper towel that was soaked. He said the cloths smelled strongly of cleaner, while the other things in the bag just seemed wet with water. A bottle of Lysol spray and a letter addressed to William Sandeson were also seized at the family farm.

Nielsen brought armloads of evidence with him into court Tuesday, along with photos he took of where police seized containers of marijuana from an apartment building where Sandeson's younger brother, Adam, lived.

Nielsen photographed and seized that stash and displayed it in the courtroom Tuesday. He also photographed a "morph suit" found hanging in a closet. Morph suits include a full head covering.

William Sandeson had told police in a videotaped interview that two intruders in morph suits shot Samson and took his body and the drugs.

Nielsen said no blood or fingerprints were found on the morph suit.

 

[Satchie]

Thanks for posting, there's not much discussion on this trial. I also haven't been reading the courtroom tweets, the news summary leaves a lot out.

It seems to me possibily the neighbours were in on the project and helped to dispose of the body, but have taken a deal to give very limited testimony. Otherwise, why would Sandeson have immediately gone to their apartment and brought them to his.

I think his body must have gone out through the window. Then, as a medical student, Sandeson could have completely disposed of it.

Who'd have thought massive tuition costs would lead to students murdering each other?

Sent from my SM-T350 using Tapatalk

 

[JusticeWillBeServed]

More details emerge in court about search for Taylor Samson's body

Police rummaged through a pile of cow manure and drained a pond in their search for Taylor Samson, a Nova Scotia Supreme Court jury was told Wednesday.

The manure was on the farm near Truro owned by William Sandeson's family. Sandeson is charged with first-degree murder in Samson's death.

Sgt. Andre Habib told the jury hearing the case against Sandeson that police used a cadaver dog to search the farm. Habib said the dog signalled next to the cow manure that there may be something there. Habib said the dog gave a similar signal at a pond near the farm.

Neither search turned up anything. Samson's body has never been found.

http://www.thecoast.ca/halifax/finding-taylor-samson/Content?oid=7355672

Since the day he went missing, Linda Boutilier hasn’t stopped looking for her boy.

On a rainy Mother’s Day last Sunday, Taylor Samson’s mom, brother Connor and best friend, Thomas McCrossin, have met to reminisce about the 22-year-old whose death is all the city can seem to talk about.

The media frenzy surrounding the ongoing trial has been frustrating for Boutilier, who has seen her son reduced to a “Dalhousie drug dealer.”

Her son just loved helping people and making them feel included, says Boutilier. She remembers fondly how crazy he used to drive her.

“He’d come in the house...and I’d be in the living room and he’d walk right by and go ‘Mum. Mum. Mum. Mom. Mother. Mum,’” she says, wiping away tears, “and he would stand there looking at me and he goes, ‘Where’s my hug?’”

Since the day Samson went missing, Boutilier has had to deal with constant rumours and acquaintances offering up their own unsolicited pet theories about what happened to her son.

“I’ve literally had people come up to me and tell me, ‘You know he’s chopped up somewhere,’” she says.

After everything—the trial and the public attention—her concern is still finding her boy. She still physically searches for his remains, conducting her own investigation.

She’s also attended every hearing since the trial began.

“I go in there because I got most of it put together, but the part I’m trying to find out is where Taylor could be,” she says.

 

[JusticeWillBeServed]

Searchers told to look for human remains on Sandeson farm, murder trial hears

Police used search dogs, cadaver dogs, a dive team and civilian searchers as they combed through a farm looking for clues in the death of a Dalhousie University student whose body has never been found, a jury in Halifax heard Thursday.

Civilian searchers testified Thursday they were told to look for anything significant on the farm in the Truro, N.S., area, which belonged to Sandeson's parents. They were also told to look for human remains.

The jury heard searchers found a pair of gloves discarded in some alders on the farm. They also discovered bags in the back of a derelict ice cream truck that was found on the property. The gloves and bags have been introduced as evidence at the trial.

 

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Duffel bag tested positive for victim's blood, jury told

Wasson was also responsible for sending off exhibit material for testing, including blood swabs taken from a handgun and a large black duffel bag police seized from the farm.

He testified Tuesday there was a large red stain inside the bag that tested positive for Samson's blood. Samson's blood was also found on a tarp seized at the Sandeson farm.

Accused killer Sandeson owed nearly $76k on line of credit

The man charged in the death of Taylor Samson reassured his parents he was in good financial shape, despite taking out nearly $76,000 of a $200,000 line of credit issued when he was accepted to Dalhousie University's medical school in 2013.

Earlier Wednesday, a forensic DNA expert testified that blood from Samson was found in his accused killer's apartment and vehicle, and on his gun and family farm.

Florence Célestin, of the RCMP's crime lab in Ottawa, said her lab processed all the exhibits police seized from Sandeson's apartment in south-end Halifax and from the Sandeson family farm near Truro.

Those exhibits included Sandeson's 9-mm Smith and Wesson handgun, a bullet found lodged in the window frame of Sandeson's kitchen, chunks of flooring police removed from that same kitchen, and a tarp and black duffel bag recovered from the farm.

All of those pieces of evidence had Samson's blood on them.

 

[JusticeWillBeServed]

Sandeson's handgun used to shoot someone at close range, RCMP expert testifies

RCMP Sgt. Adrian Butler told the court that investigators gave him photographs of a crime scene in the kitchen of Sandeson's apartment in south-end Halifax.

Butler said he was able to enlarge the images to get a good look at the gun. He said he was able to count 44 minute droplets of blood — many along the slide at the top of the gun.

He said it appeared to him that the blood was "back splatter," meaning a fine mist of blood that was blown back toward the gun by the force of the bullet striking a body.

The blood pattern suggests the gun was between two and four feet of its target, most likely near to the two-feet range, he said.

http://globalnews.ca/news/3478210/blood-spatter-expert-takes-stand-in-sandeson-murder-trial/

William Sandeson’s younger brother Adam also took the stand Thursday.

Adam testified that he was living at an apartment on Chestnut Street in Halifax in August 2015. He said that on the morning of Aug. 17, he had multiple text messages from his brother when he woke up informing him that he was going to be stopping by his apartment with some laundry, something Adam said was not out of the ordinary.

Adam told the jury that he didn’t see his brother that day but when he spoke to him, William told him that the basement may smell funny.

Adam said he located a backpack that was filled with marijuana. When Adam questioned his brother about the drugs he said William told him that they weren’t his.

 

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Expert testifies about gun found at Sandeson's home

[RCMP firearms expert] Knowles testified Monday the gun, a 9-mm Smith and Wesson, was operational. She test-fired the gun at the RCMP range to prove it worked and to obtain a bullet to compare to the one in the window frame.

She said the bullet from the window frame was the same type as those fired by Sandeson's gun. However, it was too badly damaged to get a confirmed match, she added.

Knowles also testified she tested the gun to make sure it couldn't be fired accidentally. Drop tests were performed and the gun did not go off.

Jury is home until next Monday. (There'll be arguments by lawyers in the meantime, but there's a publication ban in place.)

 

[JusticeWillBeServed]

William Sandeson won't testify at murder trial as defence rests its case

William Sandeson will not testify in his first-degree murder trial as the defence rested its case Tuesday following its final witness, an ex-girlfriend who said she thought Sandeson was selling off his drug dealing business the night Taylor Samson disappeared.

Sandeson is accused of killing Samson, a fellow Dalhousie University student, nearly two years ago. The Crown has alleged Samson was murdered in Sandeson's Halifax apartment during a deal involving nine kilograms of marijuana.

Sandeson has pleaded not guilty and has been on trial before a Nova Scotia Supreme Court judge and jury in Halifax. The Crown rested its case earlier this week, and the defence subsequently called several witnesses of its own.

Both sides will make their closing arguments on Monday, and the judge will instruct the jury the next day.

Samson, Sandeson had 'a big deal together,' murder trial hears

 

[Satchie]

I'm confused, the defence witnesses say #1 Sandeson had been dealing drugs since 2014 (altho he was deeply in debt, so it can't have been going well) and #2 lied to police about the size of the deal and about Samson arrivjng at his home.

These are the defence witnesses? Just seem to support the prosecution, IMO.

Sent from my SM-T350 using Tapatalk

 

[JusticeWillBeServed]

Sandeson not a criminal mastermind, defence says in closing arguments

William Sandeson is not a criminal mastermind who lured Taylor Samson to his home with a plan to shoot him and steal his marijuana, his lawyer argued in a Halifax courtroom Monday as he urged a jury to acquit his client of murder.

During his closing arguments in the case, defence lawyer Eugene Tan said there was a "violent incident" inside Sandeson's Halifax apartment, but that Sandeson maintains there were other people there that evening.

The Crown is scheduled to deliver its closing arguments Tuesday and the jury isn't expected to being deliberations until Thursday.

 

[JusticeWillBeServed]

Sandeson turned to murder to solve money woes, Crown says in final arguments

William Sandeson was under financial pressure and lured Taylor Samson to his apartment to kill him and steal his nine kilograms of marijuana, a prosecutor said Tuesday as she urged a Halifax jury to find Sandeson guilty of first-degree murder.

Samson's body has never been found. But in her closing arguments in Nova Scotia Supreme Court, Crown lawyer Kim McOnie said there doesn't need to be a body to prove murder. She told the jury the evidence shows Sandeson not only killed Samson but that it was planned and deliberate.

After McOnie finished her closing arguments, quiet sobbing could be heard in the Halifax courtroom.

The judge will give final instructions to the jury on Thursday morning and deliberations should begin that afternoon.