A Sechelt man was convicted of manslaughter, and a Powell River man was convicted of second-degree murder last Friday for the brutal beating death of a 51-year-old man as they tried to steal his marijuana.
Richard William Robert Peers, 25, of Sechelt, was convicted of manslaughter for being a party to the killing of James Moss at his rural home outside Powell River in January 2005. Mark Anthony Harding, 22, of Powell River was convicted of second-degree murder.
A date for sentencing in Powell River was to be set July 26, past Coast Reporter deadlines.
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Geoff Barrow found that Harding and Peers went to Moss' home in the early hours of Jan. 26, 2005 with no other intention than to steal his marijuana.
As Barrow read through his two-hour long decision, he narrowed in on Harding as the one beating Moss to death. The beating was so savage, the trial heard, that a friend who found Moss' body could not even recognize his battered face.Though Barrow said there was no physical evidence to link Peers to the beating, and he rejected evidence that alleged that Peers hit Moss with a baseball bat, the judge narrowed in on a legal point to convict Peers on manslaughter as a party to the offence.
He became a party to the killing by participating in the robbery with Harding, said Barrow. Knowing Harding was going to rob Moss, he would have also known an assault of Moss was likely.
Peers did not testify, but Barrow found Harding lied in his evidence.
"I do not accept Mr. Harding's evidence I find that he lied on significant aspects of what happened in [Moss'] residence," the judge said. "His evidence is improbable to the point of being fantastic."
Harding, dressed in the black dress shirt he wore through much of the trial, sat with a look of disbelief through the verdict. Peers, also in a black shirt, looked down despondently at the floor of the prisoner's box for much of Barrow's decision.
One piece of Harding's evidence accepted by the judge was that Moss first attacked Harding, hitting him with an unloaded shotgun. But Barrow rejected any argument of self-defence.
Moss, 30 years older than Harding, addicted to morphine, overweight and with various health problems, presented no threat to the young, fit and taller man, said the judge. Harding, in his testimony, said Moss' injuries were no worse than his, and that Moss was yelling at him and Peers as they left. The protracted beating left large amounts of blood throughout the house.But on a convenience store video tape only hours after the killing, Harding was seen with friends, buoyant and showing no serious injuries.
