Judge allows 96 victim-impact statements to be admissible during killer’s sentencing

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New guidelines for how victim-impact statements can be submitted in court are expected after the chief judge of Manitoba’s Court of Queen’s Bench hears from family and friends of a murdered 17-year-old about how his death affected them.

All 96 victim-impact statements written by people who knew Cooper Nemeth will be admissible in court when Chief Justice Glenn Joyal sentences Cooper’s killer, court heard Monday.

Defence lawyer Barry Sinder agreed all 96 should be entered into the court record, with some redactions. Sixteen of those statements, from Cooper’s relatives and friends in Winnipeg’s hockey community, are expected to be read aloud in court when Nicholas Bell-Wright is sentenced Wednesday for second-degree murder.

Bell-Wright, 24, pleaded guilty to the charge in the fall, admitting he shot Cooper in the head under the guise of arranging a drug deal. The 17-year-old high school hockey player had been involved in selling Xanax pills and was last seen alive leaving a house party Feb. 13, 2016. His disappearance prompted hundreds of community volunteers to join in citywide search efforts, which ended a week later after Cooper’s body was found in a garbage bin about a kilometre from Bell-Wright’s home.

Bell-Wright was set to be sentenced last week, but the hearing was delayed because of the overwhelming number of victim-impact statements submitted to Crown prosecutors, who said current victims rights legislation doesn’t allow them to limit how many statements can be received by the court.

While acknowledging the number of victim-impact statements in this case was “unwieldy,” Crown attorney Keith Eyrikson said the Crown’s position is if all 96 victims wanted to read their statements in court, they would have to be allowed. As it stands, all of the statements have been read by Joyal, who said the court will clarify the victim-impact statement process for future cases.

“In coming forward with that practice direction, it will come hopefully sooner than later, it will be clear to all that while the court is absolutely uncompromising in ensuring that the victim rights legislation is given full effect, there has to be practical, predictable and clear guidelines on how that legislation is reconciled, with not only integrity of the Court of Queen’s Bench processes, but also what’s fair to the accused, and what’s also, I think, respectful of the family’s wishes,” Joyal said.

But, the judge said, this case does not set a precedent for how large numbers of victim-impact statements should be handled by the court.

“It should simply be a reaffirmation of the court’s respect and acknowledgement that victims do have a voice and they will be heard in victim-impact statements. How exactly those victim-impact statements will be received in the future… will be, I think, guided by the practice direction and potentially the facts of a given request,” Joyal said.

A conviction on second-degree murder carries an automatic life sentence, and the only issue for the judge to decide at sentencing is how long Bell-Wright will have to wait before he can apply for parole. Joyal previously expressed concern allowing 96 victim-impact statements to be entered into the court record would make it appear as though his decision on parole ineligibility would be swayed by them.

Few details have been publicly revealed about what happened the night Cooper was killed.

Crown attorney Mike Himmelman previously told court “the accused suggested to the deceased that he could assist him in setting up a drug deal. When Cooper got into Bell-Wright’s car, they got into a fight and Bell-Wright shot Nemeth while he was sitting in the passenger seat.”

Around 2 a.m., Bell-Wright went home, put his clothes in the wash and tried to clean his vehicle with cleaning supplies, bleach and spray paint, court heard. His mother and brother would later tell police about what he did after he got home that morning.

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @thatkatiemay