GUILTY Canada - Taylor Van Diest, 18, beaten to death, Armstrong, BC, 31 Oct 2011

[Woodland]

So 3 years less time served for SF - seems he has prior drug and car theft charges. Hopefully those resulted in a DNA sample submission.

http://www.kelownacapnews.com/news/258333711.html

An update is expected tomorrow according to the article.

 

[dotr]

So 3 years less time served for SF - seems he has prior drug and car theft charges. Hopefully those resulted in a DNA sample submission.

http://www.kelownacapnews.com/news/258333711.html

An update is expected tomorrow according to the article.

From the linked article, chilling words indeed. imo.
bbm

"Justice Peter Rogers agreed to the sentence, which was presented as a joint submission from Crown counsel and defence, noting that if he had his way, he'd have aimed for a slightly longer term of imprisonment.

"Mr. Foerster, knowing that Matthew was a killer, that he killed a defenceless girl, and he killed her at random, (sends) him to Collingwood, Ontario, where, for all he knows, he'll kill again," said Rogers, as he rendered the sentence.

" What Matthew Foerster did was just cold and Stephen Foerster knowingly facilitated a cold killer to be at large, that's worrisome."

 

[Crosby87]

Why didn’t Justice Peter Rogers increase Stephen’s sentence if he thought it wasn’t enough?

“Justice Peter Rogers agreed to the sentence which was presented as a joint submission from Crown counsel and defence, but said “if he had his way, he’d have aimed for a slightly longer term of imprisonment. “

 

[Crosby87]

So 3 years less time served for SF - seems he has prior drug and car theft charges. Hopefully those resulted in a DNA sample submission.

http://www.kelownacapnews.com/news/258333711.html

An update is expected tomorrow according to the article.

I didn't see Stephen's criminal history in this link.

 

[Crosby87]

Here’s a summary of events that took place after Matthew attacked Taylor according to various MSM reports. (Links below.)

<snipped>

The father of the man who murdered BC teen Taylor Van Diest has admitted to helping his son hide after the crime according to local media reports.

Behind the scenes, Foerster was less blase, apparently feverishly working to keep his son hidden from police. In November two women packed up Matthew Foerster's Lumby apartment, and Stephen went shortly thereafter to collect the boxes.

Crown counsel Chris Balison explained to the court how the elder Foerster, acted swiftly to help his son escape police detection after a sketch of his son was released a month after Taylor died.

Around 1,250 tips were offered to police in the weeks in November 2011, and at least 30 of which pointed to Matthew Foerster.

Some of those tips came from the Foerster's friends and family, who were also turning to elder Foerster for answers.

"There was certainly no secret in the local area and in the Foerster family... that RCMP were investigating Matthew Foerster,&#8221; said Balison.

The report said Court heard how the accused bought fake ID for his son so he could live and work undetected in the ski resort town of Collingwood, ON, where police arrested him in April 2012.

He asked a long-time friend to help him purchase a new identity for his son, and for $500 he came up with a BCAA card, drivers licence, old bank card and SIN number that Foerster used to move to Collingwood, Ont.

MSM reports say the name Matthew used on his resume when he visited the Georgian Staffing Services employment agency was "Lee Shawcross.&#8221; The real Lee Shawcross lives in the Lower Mainland and told CTV News that police have told him not to talk about the case. However, he did say that Foerster's father is a family acquaintance.

Stephen Roy Foerster was also ordered to avoid contact with a number of people and stay out of the 18-year-old murder victim's hometown at a hearing in Vernon Supreme Court Monday.

Once in Collingwood, father and son communicated through two pay-as-you-go mobile phones they'd purchased.

Balison made reference to three calls made through the phones, where the father-son duo discussed use of the purchased identity, the police investigation, methods to avoid detection and eventually plans to buy a second new identity.

The type of pressure they were facing from police was also outlined in those conversations.

Foerster found a tracking device on one of the family cars and the police were regularly dropping in with questions.

They were both arrested on the same day in April 2012, Stephen at his Cherryville home and Matthew in Collingwood, Ont.

Matthew is serving a life sentence without opportunity for parole for the next 25 years.

Stephen will start his sentence immediately.

http://www.torontosun.com/2014/05/07/father-admits-he-helped-son-hide-after-murder-of-bc-teen

http://bc.ctvnews.ca/teen-s-alleged-killer-befriended-young-women-in-ont 1.808105#ixzz314CVv9mc

http://www.kelownacapnews.com/news/258333711.html

 

[Woodland]

I didn't see Stephen's criminal history in this link.

The article I linked was updated and any mention of other charges was omitted, however here is another article that still includes that info -

The court heard that Stephen had a prior criminal history dating back to 1969 including drug charges, auto theft, and escape from custody while in his late teen years.

http://www.castanet.net/edition/news-story-114715-1-.htm

The Kelowna Captial did not originally specify the charges went back to the late '60's, nor was 'escape from custody' included.

This will have to be taken with a grain of salt - I received info today that Stephen Foerster did have a DNA submission included with the sentencing on 'accessory' charges. Have no idea why this is not in MSM at this time but am satisfied it happened. Jmo.

 

[dotr]

Matthew Foerster exhibit PART ONE - YouTube



Matthew Foerster exhibit PART TWO - YouTube

 

[Crosby87]

The article I linked was updated and any mention of other charges was omitted, however here is another article that still includes that info -

The court heard that Stephen had a prior criminal history dating back to 1969 including drug charges, auto theft, and escape from custody while in his late teen years.

http://www.castanet.net/edition/news-story-114715-1-.htm

The Kelowna Captial did not originally specify the charges went back to the late '60's, nor was 'escape from custody' included.

This will have to be taken with a grain of salt - I received info today that Stephen Foerster did have a DNA submission included with the sentencing on 'accessory' charges. Have no idea why this is not in MSM at this time but am satisfied it happened. Jmo.

I found it at the end of this article.

"" Stephen started his sentence immediately. He will have to submit his DNA to the national registry and pay a victim's surcharge.""

I bet the victim's surcharge Stephen was ordered to pay will be very expensive.

http://www.kelownacapnews.com/news/258333711.html

 

[Crosby87]

This is why the Judge didn&#8217;t increase Stephen&#8217;s sentence.

<snipped>

A joint submission by the Crown Prosecutor and Defence ensured Stephen would only receive a three-year sentence. Justice Peter Rogers had told the court that if left to his own devices, he would have levied a harsher penalty.

http://www.castanet.net/edition/news-story-114715-1-.htm

 

[Crosby87]

New information released:

<snipped>

Stephen Foerster was charged with accessory after the fact to murder and obstructing justice in the 2011 death of Taylor Van Diest. He pled guilty to the accessory charge. The obstruction charge was stayed. Foerster senior has a lengthy criminal record dating back to 1969, including auto theft, drug offenses and escape from custody.

Crown counsel Chris Balison said Matthew had been renting an outbuilding in Lumby at the time of Taylor Van Diest&#8217;s murder, and told his landlord that he would be moving out in early December.

Stephen picked up his son&#8217;s possessions one day and then promptly quit his own job as a truck driver for Ace Courier right around the same time. Balison says Stephen&#8217;s boss stopped by the house to drop off his final paycheque and also asked about Matthew, to which Stephen responded, &#8220;It&#8217;s up to a judge to decide.&#8221;

Also in December 2011 the Crown says Stephen attempted, and was able to buy personal identification from family friend, Lee Shawcross, whose father had been close to the elder Foerster.

He paid $500 for a driver&#8217;s license, bankcard, BCAA card and also his social insurance number. Later Shawcross also provided &#8216;stuffers&#8217; or receipts and other typical things found in a person&#8217;s wallet. Neither Shawcross (dad or son) was said to have known the real reason why Foerster had asked for these items.

Before he left town, Matthew drove to Kamloops on December 4 and bought two pre-paid cell phones with additional airtime. He also asked for Alberta area codes, which the Crown says correlates with Stephen&#8217;s claims that Matthew was working in northern Alberta.

The RCMP were then able to intercept calls made between father and son, and that&#8217;s how they discovered Matthew had been living in Collingwood, Ont.

Three of the calls made between March and April 2012 were of significance the court heard, including conversations about Stephen attempting to get new identification for his son.

Transcripts of these calls provided to the court also highlighted conversations about Matthew&#8217;s attempts to find employment, Stephen discovering a tracking device on his wife&#8217;s car, and his reminders to Matthew about making changes to his fake SIN number and the possibility of getting new phones in case the police got too close.

Two days after that last conversation Matthew was arrested on April 4th 2012, at a motel in Collingwood. Stephen was arrested that same day at his home in Cherryville.

http://www.castanet.net/edition/news-story-114715-1-.htm

 

[Woodland]

I found it at the end of this article.

"" Stephen started his sentence immediately. He will have to submit his DNA to the national registry and pay a victim's surcharge.""

I bet the victim's surcharge Stephen was ordered to pay will be very expensive.

http://www.kelownacapnews.com/news/258333711.html

BBM

Hoping the victim's surcharge was the $100K bail.

 

[Woodland]

This is why the Judge didn’t increase Stephen’s sentence.

<snipped>

A joint submission by the Crown Prosecutor and Defence ensured Stephen would only receive a three-year sentence. Justice Peter Rogers had told the court that if left to his own devices, he would have levied a harsher penalty.

http://www.castanet.net/edition/news-story-114715-1-.htm

Pleading guilty typically brings a lesser sentence, sometimes a lesser charge - it's considered a saving to the taxpayer. Sometimes it is rejected though. Jmo

 

[Woodland]

New information released:

<snipped>

Also in December 2011 the Crown says Stephen attempted, and was able to buy personal identification from family friend, Lee Shawcross, whose father had been close to the elder Foerster.

He paid $500 for a driver’s license, bankcard, BCAA card and also his social insurance number. Later Shawcross also provided ‘stuffers’ or receipts and other typical things found in a person’s wallet. Neither Shawcross (dad or son) was said to have known the real reason why Foerster had asked for these items.

http://www.castanet.net/edition/news-story-114715-1-.htm

BBM - don't believe that poppycock for one second. The composite drawing had been published and LE's phone was ringing nonstop.

Imo, the Shawcross family is lucky not to have been charged as accessories as well - maybe LE considered them too much trouble considering they caught MF within a relatively short period of time.
However, imo, if MF had killed again in this time - the outcome for them would have been very severe, and rightly so.

Hopefully people will take note of this and think twice if they are faced with this situation in the future. Don't aid and abet a killer!

 

[Crosby87]

BBM

Hoping the victim's surcharge was the $100K bail.

In the past Judges in Newfoundland, British Columbia and Ontario refused to impose the surcharge.
In December, Justice Minister Peter MacKay sternly warned Judges that they do not have the authority to disobey the Crown.

How much will Stephen Foerester's surcharge be if he isn't paying any fines? One or two hundred dollars?

<snipped>

In October the government doubled the federal victim's surcharge &#8211; from 15 to 30 percent of any fines already being paid &#8211; and make it mandatory for judges to impose. If there is no fine, the court must collect $100 for each summary conviction and $200 for each indictment. Judges have discretion to raise the surcharge, but must charge at least the minimum. The money collected goes into provincial funds, which finance various operations to help victims of crime and their families.

A spokesperson for MacKay's office told National Magazine that the program isn't quite as harsh as it sounds. "If an offender shows they are unable to pay the victim surcharge, judges have the discretion to impose a provincial fine option program where they work for credits to pay off their debt," the spokesperson said in an email statement.

However, British Columbia, Ontario and Newfoundland simply have no fine repayment programs in place.

http://www.nationalmagazine.ca/Articles/November/The-victim-surcharge.aspx

 

[Woodland]

Imo, it's kind of dumb not to have a victim surcharge program up and running - like taking people's houses and vehicles for drug convictions. It offsets the costs.

Maybe it would become a crime deterrent for some.

 

[Crosby87]

After I read this article that says &#8220;Everyone who is an accessory after the fact to murder is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for life&#8221; I was expecting Stephen&#8217;s sentence to be a minimum of ten years.

The Prosecution's case against Stephen and Matthew was air-tight. It was just a matter of time before they&#8217;d be caught.

If SRF couldn&#8217;t afford to pay the Court $100,000 to bond out of jail, which he would receive back in full if he attends all his scheduled court appearances, he&#8217;d have to employ a bondsman who will charge him a minimum of $10,000 which is non-refundable after the trial ends regardless of whether he is found guilty or innocent. In addition to a 10-15% down payment, the bond agent will need collateral against the money, and so the suspect might offer a mortgage on a house, or title to a car, or some other valuable item such as jewelry.

I didn't find any incentive for Stephen to post bond. The purpose of bail is to allow people to continue to live their lives while under suspicion of a crime. The suspect needs to work, contribute to his community, care for his family, and generally function in society. Stephen quit his truck driving job in November 2011 and I doubt he had the money to post bond. Remaining incarcerated allowed Stephen to serve 1/3 of his sentence and he may be released early for good behavior.

Will Stephen, who is 60 be able to find a job when he&#8217;s released from prison in a few years? His past criminal record didn&#8217;t stop him from working and if he wants to retain his driver&#8217;s license while he&#8217;s incarcerated, he can.

In the Province of Manitoba, a person does not have to pay their annual driver&#8217;s license fees if they stop driving for up to four years. If they don&#8217;t renew their driver&#8217;s license at the end of 4 years, the person will have to repeat the written exam and road test. The cost of Stephen&#8217;s license depends on the class. Since he is a truck driver, he may have his Class I with S air brakes. My license costs $50 per year to renew.

I don&#8217;t see anything that would prevent Stephen from returning to work after he&#8217;s released. If Stephen&#8217;s victim surcharge fine is a few hundred dollars, he should be able to pay it quite quickly if he has a job.

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Canadian_Criminal_Law/Offences/Accessory_After_the_Fact

 

[Woodland]

I have it on good authority that SF obtained a second mortgage on his home to meet his bail of $100K. This has likely been paid back since he appeared in court as ordered - no one would be out of pocket. If he didn't do that, Mrs SF would have been substantially impacted.

SF should be serving more than the 3 years he was handed - hardly a deterrent for future parents/others that think of doing the same thing. Imo, the Crown blurred the lines of a guilty plea with savings at the time with the deterrent to others in the future. The bank was even on SF's side!

I agree that SF had no incentive to post bond - so why did he? Jail ain't pretty? Meals aren't the same? TV? Internet? Who knows. He is self employed, as far as I can see, so future employment will be up to what he can sell, or his living will be provided by others.

I am still of the opinion the surcharge should be extremely high - tell others what not to do. A substantial amount to Taylor's parents would please me to no end - loss of future enjoyment of her company, grandchildren among other things. Jmo though.
Did you ever hear of a case in Ontario many years ago where a woman stopped to buy a sandwich for her and her disabled daughter? She was shot in the spine in the crossfire of a mob hit and left a paraplegic. The mob agreed to pay her $250K with a minimal time in jail for the shooter. I personally had no problem with that. At the time, that paid for renovations to her home and for an alternative caregiver to look after her daughter for many years to come. Many others had a problem with this, however what would this woman have done otherwise?

Hit the perps in the pocketbook to pay for their victims out of pocket expenses - why are the taxpayers still doing this? Jmo.

 

[Crosby87]

If Stephen remortgaged his home in order to pay the Court $100,000, doesn&#8217;t he or his wife have to pay the bank a few hundred dollars each month?

None of MSM articles indicate when Stephen spent 336 days in jail or whether he bonded out of jail. They only say SF will begin serving his sentence immediately.

While SF was incarcerated for 336 days, he wasn&#8217;t allowed to work so he won&#8217;t be able to earn a living and pay his debt to the bank, if necessary, or the victim surcharge he was ordered to pay by the Judge for 759 days or just over 2 years.

Timeline for Stephen Foerester:

April 5, 2012: Stephen Foerster was arrested and also remanded in custody Thursday until he appears in court again one week later.

April 11, 2012: SF court-ordered appearance.

May 14, 2012: Stephen attends a bail hearing and his bond was set at $100,000.

May 21, 2012 - Stephen Foerster ordered to appear in court.

October 2013: the Crown reviewed it's evidence against Foerster during a three-day preliminary hearing in Vernon BC.

November 12, 2013: Stephen is scheduled to be back in provincial court to set a trial date.

May 7, 2014: Stephen Foerster, 60, pleaded guilty Wednesday to being an accessory after the fact in the murder of 18-year-old Taylor Van Diest on Halloween night 2011. He was sentenced to 3 years behind bars but will now spend 759 days in prison because he already served 336 days.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...after-2011-murder-of-bc-teen/article18529602/
http://bc.ctvnews.ca/man-charged-in-van-diest-murder-granted-100k-bail-1.809602
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/10/30/taylor-van-diest-death-stephen-foerster_n_4179589.html

 

[Crosby87]

http://www.theprovince.com/news/Arm...ult+trials+despite+already/9814944/story.html

Matthew was employed in Collingwood, ON

<snipped>

One call in late March 2012 revealed Matthew was working at a glass factory in Collingwood and had switched two digits in the social insurance number to avoid detection, Balison said.

Stephen Foerester's comment about helping his son

<snipped>

Foerster said he knew what he&#8217;d done was wrong but that he would have taken the fall for his son.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...after-2011-murder-of-bc-teen/article18529602/

 

[OkieGranny]

http://www.kelownacapnews.com/news/275832741.html

The man convicted earlier this year in the brutal slaying of an Armstrong teenager appears to be interested in overturning his conviction.

An application was filed with the Court of Appeal on behalf of Matthew Foerster Sept. 3, said a representative from the court. It's early on in the process and no other materials have been filed, so the grounds on which Foerster will pursue the appeal are yet unknown .