More than two months after finding a Prince George man guilty of drugs and weapons possession, a judge has issued written reasons from last June’s evidence admissibility hearing.
On Dec. 18, 2024, Justice Kathleen Ker convicted Justin David Dupray, 29, of possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking and unauthorized possession of a restricted firearm, a Glock 9-millimetre handgun.
Dupray’s co-accused on the drug charge, Tor Liam Green, 28, was found not guilty.
In an oral decision last June, published Tuesday, Feb. 25, Ker dismissed Dupray’s claims that police breached his constitutional protection from unreasonable search and seizure and arbitrary detention. However, Ker accepted the Crown’s concession that police breached Dupray’s right to see a lawyer without delay.
“As I stated when I gave the result in this case: the statements are out, the handgun is in,” Ker wrote.
Early on Feb. 6, 2021, Prince George RCMP arrested Dupray and Green in a bust at two adjoining residences. Among the items seized from Dupray’s home: 2.62 grams of cocaine, $7,490 in cash and a loaded handgun. From Green’s home: 761.06 grams of cocaine, $20,870 in cash, a loaded 9-mm magazine. It took until June 2022 for the charges to be approved and announced.
The case was tried intermittently, between May 27 and Sept. 18 of last year.
Ker deemed the handgun admissible because it was “highly reliable physical evidence essential to the prosecution.”
“The (handgun) was obtained pursuant to a valid search warrant and as I have already noted, it was in plain view and discoverable without the assistance of Mr. Dupray’s admissions,” Ker wrote.
A reasonable, fully informed person could only conclude that admitting the firearm, rather than excluding it, “would best serve the long-term interests of the administration of justice.”
The same could not be said about Dupray’s incriminating admissions to police prior to being advised of his right to see a lawyer under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Ker said the search warrant was executed in the dead of night, in a scene that was initially chaotic. “The accused was dressed only in boxer shorts and officers fanned out through his home as they cleared the residence.”
“In my view, the failure to provide Mr. Dupray with his right to counsel at the first available opportunity, in advance of any utterances made by him, is inexplicable,” Ker ruled.
Ker determined that the Crown’s case would “not be gutted” by excluding the admissions.
Dupray awaits sentencing.
