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A Nova Scotia man who committed a murder 11 years ago this week is waging yet another legal battle: William Sandeson wants his money back.
Sandeson has applied for the return of $5,000 cash and a laptop computer containing a wallet of bitcoin. They were seized when police arrested Sandeson and his apartment in south-end Halifax became a crime scene.
The Crown says the money amounts to proceeds of crime and should be forfeited.
The $5,000 represents only a portion of the cash police found in the apartment. Most of the currency they recovered was stained by the blood of murder victim Taylor Samson.
Samson was shot and killed in Sandeson’s kitchen in the midst of what was supposed to be a deal for more than 18 kilograms of cannabis. Sandeson took the drugs, kept the money and disposed of Samson’s body, which has never been recovered.
During an appearance in Nova Scotia Supreme Court on Wednesday morning, Sandeson’s lawyer, Allan MacDonald, said the Crown had failed to prove the money was “tainted by criminality” as Crown lawyer Timothy O’Leary had claimed.
MacDonald told Justice John Bodurtha that Sandeson had legitimate sources of income at that time and he could have used one of those jobs to finance the purchase of bitcoin.
Sandeson had obtained a $200,000 line of credit to help pay for his university. He was just days away from starting medical school at Dalhousie University when he was arrested.
O’Leary said evidence at his trials showed that Sandeson loaned money from that line of credit to other drug dealers and that proceeds from those loans were used to buy bitcoin.
MacDonald argued that O’Leary should not be able to use evidence Sandeson gave at his second murder trial in this proceeding about the forfeiture. Bodurtha told the lawyers he will rule on whether that testimony can be used and also whether Sandeson should get the money back, when he hands down his decision in November.
Sandeson was initially tried and convicted of first-degree murder in Samson’s death. But that conviction was overturned on appeal. He was convicted of second-degree murder at a second trial and is still serving the life sentence from that conviction.
He appeared by video at Wednesday’s hearing from a prison in Quebec. Samson’s mother, Linda Boutilier, was in the courtroom as she has been for all of Sandeson’s court appearances.
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