By Canadian Press

Crown argues two men planned murder of B.C. resident for banking information

Dec 12, 2022 | 1:46 PM

VANCOUVER — The prosecutor in the B.C. Supreme Court murder trial for an escaped inmate says evidence shows the accused and another escapee were “inseparable,” and proves the pair planned their attack to get banking information from their victim.

In her closing arguments in the trial of James Lee Busch, Crown attorney Chandra Fisher says the accused and another man waited for the victim to return from work, and had gathered weapons and duct tape to confine him before he was murdered. 

Busch was charged with the first-degree murder of 60-year-old Martin Payne in July 2019, a day after he and Zachary Armitagewalked away from William Head Institution, just eight kilometres from the victim’s home in Metchosin on southern Vancouver Island. 

Armitage began the trial with Busch but the prosecutor says the Crown is proceeding against the two accused on separate indictments.

Fisher told the jury trial that Payne was larger than both of the men and two of them would have been needed to carry out the crime.

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She asked the jury to consider whether the men intended to kill the victim, arguing they needed Payne “to be silent, or else they’d be going right back to jail.”

“We know Mr. Armitage and Mr. Busch escaped from prison and we know they intended to remain at large. They needed a place to hide, they needed money, they needed transportation. What they did not need was a witness.”

Defence lawyer Ryan Drury is expected to deliver his closing arguments to the jury this afternoon.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 12, 2022.

The Canadian Press