James Lee Busch and Zachary Armitage have been charged with one count each of first degree murder, in relation to Martin Payne's death.West Shore RCMP/Supplied
A year after two inmates escaped a Victoria-area federal prison, they have been charged with murdering a man while they were on the run, prompting community outrage and a pledge to enact change by corrections officials.
James Busch and Zachary Armitage are accused of killing 60-year-old Martin Payne. The father of two was found in his home last July just days after the pair were recaptured.
On July 8, the pair escaped from the minimum-security William Head Institution, located about 25 kilometres southwest of Victoria in the community of Metchosin. They were recaptured on July 9 after one of them asked an off-duty Mountie about his large Great Dane and the officer recognized him and called 9-1-1.
Over the past 11 months, the Vancouver Island Integrated Major Crime Unit has been working with officers from several police forces on the case, leading to the first-degree murder charges against the two suspects. Police have not disclosed a motive.
Metochosin Mayor John Ranns said Monday that the prison has long been a good corporate citizen, but news around the escape last year and now the charges have crystallized his concerns about whether the inmates sent there meet the criteria for being a low risk.
“The problem is who gets in there,” Mr. Ranns said of the prison, which has fluctuated between a minimum- and medium-security establishment, but been classed as minimum since 2003.
He said he has been concerned that the warden at William Head lacks the clout to reject inmates sent to his facility.
He said he had received phone calls and e-mails of concern from members of the community.
According to Corrections Canada, there have been seven escapes from William Head since 1999, involving a total of 12 inmates.
“We periodically have had escapes from William Head, but they have all been benign. Guys have gotten out and they have had reasons to leave. Maybe they were afraid of something going on inside or they had personal issues they wanted to deal with. There’s never been any trouble whatsoever with escapees,” Mr. Ranns said.
Of last year’s event, Mr. Ranns said, “This was a wake-up call.”
In a statement Monday, Correctional Service Canada spokeswoman Martine Rondeau said the agency has completed a review of all minimum-security inmates under its supervision, including at William Head, with 14 offenders reclassified from minimum to medium security across Canada and transferred as a result.
She said the work of a board of investigation launched to look at all the circumstances around the escapes and remedies to prevent future escapes is in its final stages. Both inmates have been placed in separate medium-security institutions.
“We will continue our conversations with the public, community partners, stakeholders and local officials about how to address the community’s concerns while making sure we are meeting our mandate appropriately managing offenders and supporting their rehabilitation," she wrote.
Mr. Ranns said there have been some changes, but added, “You can’t make something good out of something as horrible as this.”
Mr. Payne, who was born in the Victoria-area neighbourhood of Gordon Head, worked in a plywood mill, and then in courier work at BC Mail Plus, which provides mail pick-up and distribution services for ministries, the public sector and publicly funded agencies.
No details have been released in his death.
In a statement issued by police, his family said they are dealing with profound grief. “We are completely devastated and have been relying heavily on one another throughout this horrifying ordeal,” it said.
Mr. Busch, testifying in a 2017 case challenging the the use of solitary confinement in Canada, said he was born in Edmonton in 1977 and is a member of the Cold Lake First Nations. He said his mother battled addiction and died by suicide in 1992, and that he was sexually assaulted in 1993.
He eventually served seven years without parole for sexually assaulting a seven-year-old girl and, in 2010, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for strangling a 41-year-old woman in Saskatoon over a $20 debt. He was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 15 years.
Mr. Armitage, in 2009, beat a man, in Sudbury, Ont., with a blunt object during a robbery, an assault that left his victim a quadriplegic unable to speak. Mr. Armitage pleaded guilty in 2011 to aggravated assault and robbery in the case, and was sentenced to 18 years for the attack and another robbery. Two years later, the victim died of an infection related to his injuries.
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