Standard The Hope
Local liquor store employees joined province-wide strike last week 3
Office: 604.869.2421 www.hopestandard.com
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2012
news@hopestandard.com
ANNUAL TERRY FOX EVENT THIS WEEKEND The five-kilometre walk/run kicks off at the recreation centre
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NESTLE WATERS HOSTS OPEN HOUSE Event will feature a guided tour of the Hope bottling plant
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SABINE KEIL / CONTRIBUTED
Demolition derby
Sixteen-year-old Abbotsford driver Brad Mulder (left) backs into James Van Aert and John Steele from Maple Ridge (No. 67) in the demolition derby on Sunday at the Hope Sports Bowl. Mulder finished third in both the Heat A and B competitions. For more on Brigade Days festivities, see pages 4-5.
RAISING MONEY FOR CANUCK PLACE Local team is training for an adventure challenge at Cultus Lake Sunday
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Acorn murder trial underway
Vikki Hopes Black Press
On the night before Chelsey Acorn was reported missing in June 2005, she left an Abbotsford foster home with plans to meet up with a man named “James.” Her remains were found in a shallow grave by hikers near the Carolin Mines exit off the Coquihalla Highway outside of Hope on April 8, 2006. A witness testifying during the first day of the trial for Jesse Blue West – charged with the first-degree murder of Acorn – said that she had previously met “James,” who indicated that his real name was “Blue” and showed her his ID to prove it. “He’s a slime ball,” said Jenna Cole on Tuesday at B.C. Supreme Court in Chilliwack before the judge reminded her to reserve her personal opinions. Cole’s testimony was part of a voir dire (a trial within a trial) in response to defence counsel Brian Coleman’s
challenge of the admissibility of cer- she first heard the name “Jesse West” during a March 2005 phone conversatain evidence. The trial is being heard by Judge tion with Acorn, who was a “permaWilliam Grist alone, and he will de- nent ward” of the Ministry of Chilcide whether oral statements made by dren and Family Development. Acorn had called Godbehere to Acorn to other people should be perask for permission to travel mitted as evidence. to Vancouver with a man Cole indicated that she whom she said ran a drug had known Chelsey when and alcohol program. they both resided in the Godbehere then called same Abbotsford foster the phone number supplied home from May 27 to June by Acorn, and spoke with a 10, 2005. Cole said Chelsey man who identified himself informed her that she was as “Jesse West.” spending time with a man Godbehere did not grant named “James,” who took JESSE WEST permission for Acorn to go her on drives, gave her monwith West, but the teen was ey, and bought her items a “chronic AWOLer” who did not like such as clothing and cigarettes. Crown prosecutor Carolyn Kramer boundaries and often left her foster asked Cole if the man in question was homes without permission, she said. Godbehere said Acorn struggled in the courtroom, and she indicated that West, 60, sitting in the prisoner’s with “high-risk behaviours” – such as hitchhiking, smoking pot, drinking dock, was that person. In earlier testimony, Acorn’s former alcohol, skipping school and partying social worker Cara Godbehere said – and often had boyfriends who were
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older than she. She said she last heard from Acorn on June 10, 2005, when the teen called to say she wanted to move in with her 19-year-old boyfriend, whom she identified only as “Dustin.” West and his son Dustin Moir, now 27, were charged with her murder the following year. West has been in custody ever since. Both went on trial in November 2009, but West’s proceedings were severed from Moir’s two months later. Moir was convicted in February 2010 and was sentenced to a life sentence with no parole eligibility for 15 years. During those proceedings, it was revealed that Acorn had been choked to death and buried naked in a shallow grave. Her skull had been crushed by a large rock. Stacey Laybolt, Acorn’s cousin said she wants people to focus on a key element of the case. “It’s about a 14-year-old girl whose life was taken abruptly without cause … We just want justice.”
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