VANCOUVER — Two men accused of killing a man the day after escaping a minimum-security federal prison on Vancouver Island pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder as their trial got underway in British Columbia Supreme Court on Monday.
Zachary Armitage and James Lee Busch are charged with killing 60-year-old Martin Payne in July 2019, a day after the pair walked away from William Head Institution, located about eight kilometres from the victim's home in Metchosin.
Crown prosecutor Sofia Bakken said Payne was killed in his home after returning from his job as a mail carrier in Victoria the day after the two men escaped. DNA matching Armitage's was also identified on the butt of a cigarette found in Payne's truck, she said. The Crown's first witness was a woman who testified that she and Armitage met while he was incarcerated at Mission Institution in B.C.'s Fraser Valley around 2014, and they later fell in love.That call came from the landline in Payne's home, the Crown said.
At that point, she said, Payne's body had not yet been found. Officers found the victim on the floor of his bathroom three days after he was killed, Bakken said. Security measures include alarms that are activated on the duplex doors every night at 10 p.m., checks and counts throughout the day to ensure all inmates are accounted for, and cameras on the institution's property, Cashin told the court.
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