‘Cooper wasn’t a gangster or a big-time drug dealer. He was a kid,’ mother says in victim impact statement

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This article was published 23/01/2018 (2484 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A drug dealer who shot a 17-year-old boy in the head even though the teen “didn’t do nothing wrong,” has been ordered to spend life in prison with no chance of parole for 16 years.

No matter when or if Nicholas Bell-Wright is released on parole, Court of Queen’s Bench Chief Justice Glenn Joyal said as he imposed the sentence Wednesday, he’ll be haunted by his “callous brutality” until his last breath.

Bell-Wright, 24, admitted to shooting Cooper Nemeth twice in the head Feb. 14, 2016, using a converted air gun he rigged to fire .22-calibre bullets.

He carried the gun because he thought it would be a way to make “fast money” and planned to pull off a “drug rip,” before he killed Cooper, Crown attorney Mike Himmelman told court. But court heard no explanation for the killing.

The judge agreed with Crown prosecutors’ 16-year recommendation for parole ineligibility, while defence lawyers asked for 12. The minimum is 10 years before someone convicted of second-degree murder can apply for parole.

No amount of time will be enough for Cooper’s friends and family, who filled a 96-seat Winnipeg courtroom to show what Cooper meant to them, what he’s left behind and what they’ve become since he was killed.

In a sea of matching “R.I.P. CIP — Justice for Cip” T-shirts, they spilled out of the courtroom Wednesday afternoon.

“Cooper’s tragic death has affected more people than you can possibly imagine,” his father, Brent Nemeth, told the court as he read his victim-impact statement, one of an unprecedented 96 statements submitted to the court.

For the better part of two hours Wednesday, the judge heard from 16 victims who chose to have their statements read aloud, vocalizing their shock, pain, lasting grief and memories of Cooper — “Cip,” as his friends called him. They spoke about their hard work and sleepless nights during a week-long citywide search for Cooper after he was last seen alive on the evening of Feb. 13, 2016, and they talked about what’s happened to them since — the nightmares they still have about Cooper’s murder, vengeful thoughts directed at his killer, and what it means to exist rather than to live.

Cooper’s parents, Gaylene and Brent Nemeth, his paternal and maternal grandmothers, his aunt and several of his high school friends and friends of the family all stepped up to the witness-stand microphone. One after another, they broke the silence that befell the courtroom, their words punctuated only by sniffles and passing of tissues in the gallery.

They remembered Cooper as a kind youth, the one who was “almost relied on” to bring joy to a room, a hero to his younger relatives, a hard worker and dedicated hockey player.

When those who knew him brought the community together to search for him for seven days before his body was found, they hoped the teen would be found safe — “In the end, a cruel falsehood,” Joyal said, because Cooper’s killer already knew exactly where he was while more than 500 community volunteers were searching Winnipeg.

At the time, they said they would do whatever it took to bring him home, and Wednesday they showed they would do whatever it took to bring him justice.

There were more victim-impact statements received in this case than the chief justice said he had ever seen before — an unprecedented outpouring of support. Many others who wanted to write, couldn’t put pen to paper to express their feelings, Brent Nemeth said. Some found it difficult to speak Cooper’s name without crying.

“Most of the time, I just fight to breathe, but the rest of the time, I’m not so sure I want to,” Gaylene Nemeth said as she read her victim-impact statement through tears.

“Mr. Bell-Wright is a murderer and a thief. He stole everything from Cooper and from us,” she said. “Most importantly, he stole my son’s character… Cooper wasn’t a gangster or a big-time drug dealer. He was a kid.”

Cooper had been involved in selling Xanax pills, Crown attorney Himmelman told the court. He had only known Bell-Wright a short time — a day, his mother said in her statement — when Cooper got into Bell-Wright’s car after attending a house party on Feb. 13, 2016.

Around 1:15 a.m. Feb. 14, Bell-Wright shot him twice in the head as the 17-year-old sat in the passenger seat.

Speaking to a probation officer for a court-ordered pre-sentence report after he pleaded guilty, Bell-Wright said Cooper didn’t deserve to die.

“He didn’t do nothing wrong,” Bell-Wright said, according to the report. Bell-Wright admitted he had a drug problem and started selling marijuana and cocaine, enjoying the money, attention and lifestyle he got from selling drugs.

In the report, Bell-Wright talked about how he initially thought it was “cool” to have a gun, and thought he could make “fast money” with it. After he shot Cooper, he said he changed his mind.

“I can’t believe that happened. I wish I would’ve never had that gun. Not only did I ruin my life, my family, worst of all I ruined someone else’s family. They didn’t deserve that,” Bell-Wright said in the report. “I have to live with that weight on my shoulders.”

He told the probation officer, “There has to be justice. Life was lost.”

Bell-Wright admitted he planned a “drug rip” that night as a way to make “fast money.”

After he shot him twice in the head, Bell-Wright hid Cooper’s body, which was found frozen in a garbage bin Feb. 20, 2016. The bin had been pushed through a hole in a resident’s back fence along Bayne Crescent, with the murder weapon discarded in the snow nearby. Police arrested Bell-Wright around 4 a.m. on Feb. 21, 2016, in a stolen vehicle, and he’s been in custody ever since.

“That wasn’t who I was raised to be,” Bell-Wright said Wednesday, addressing the judge as a few of his relatives sat in the gallery along with Cooper’s family and friends, who sat silently.

Cooper “had his whole life ahead of him and I had no right to take that away from him,” he said.

Gaylene Nemeth left the courtroom just before her son’s killer spoke. Brent Nemeth said he plugged his ears so he wouldn’t have to hear him. Both later said they did not care what Bell-Wright had to say.

Bell-Wright was expelled from River East Collegiate, the same high school Cooper was set to graduate from the year he was killed.

“We got what we asked for, but it doesn’t bring my son back, and that’s about all one can say,” Gaylene Nemeth said outside court. “Thank you to everybody, anyone who helped us searching, helped us in that courtroom, and helped us through the last two years.”

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @thatkatiemay