INSIDE: Mission police revisiting New Year’s Eve murder case Pg. 4 F R I D A Y
February 11, 2011
3 N E W S ,
SPORTS,
WEATHER
&
Home safe from Egypt’s Tahrir Square
E N T E R T A I N M E N T abbotsfordtimes.com
Killer Butorac handed 23-year wait for parole
JENNIFER SALTMAN The Province
O
n Thursday a judge decided it will be 23 years before Davey Butorac, convicted of killing two “very vulnerable” Fraser Valley women, can apply for parole. A B.C. Supreme Court jury found Butorac, 32, guilty in July of two counts of second-degree murder. The body of Gwendolyn Jo Lawton, 46, was found on March 13, 2007, dumped over an embankment beside a rural road in Abbotsford. She had been beaten and strangled to death. In July 2007, 50-year-old Sheryl Lynn Koroll’s body was found in a Langley industrial park. Koroll, who was also beaten, died of blunt-force head injuries that caused a skull fracture. A second-degree murder conviction results in an automatic life sentence, but the number of years before parole eligibility can vary. The minimum is 10 years. Eleven members of the 12-person jury recommended the maximum period of 25 years, while one suggested 20. The judge is not bound by the jury’s recommendations. Crown prosecutor Christopher McPherson said 25 years is unusual in second-degree murder cases but appropriate for Butorac. “Mr. Butorac is among the worst group of offenders and these were among the worst group of offences,” McPherson told Justice Elizabeth Arnold-Bailey. He described the murders as “brutal” attacks on “very vulnerable” women. McPherson said both women were addicted to drugs and worked in the street-level sex trade. “The accused preyed on the most vulnerable in society,” he said. The women led tragic lives, McPherson said, but they loved and were loved by others. “Their lives had value,” he said. Lawton’s mother, Irene Reitz, said in a victim-impact statement that her daughter was her mentor, confidante, teacher and the love of her life. ◗ For more on this story, visit www. abbotsfordtimes.com.
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– JEAN KONDA-WITTE (ABOVE); CAM TUCKER (BELOW)/TIMES
A military helicopter lands in the trees in the dark, close to the wreckage of the Cessna which crashed into the Nicomen Island Slough late Wednesday afternoon, killing the pilot and passenger. Salvage team member Bryce Rudland, below, retrieves part of the submerged aircraft Thursday morning.
Plane crash victims named Collided in mid-air, pilot a member of Langley formation-flying group
First reported @
abbotsfordtimes.com
CAM TUCKER & ROCHELLE BAKER editorial@abbotsfordtimes.com
T
he two men who died following the collision of two small airplanes east of Mission Wednesday afternoon have been identified. Pilot Donn Hubble, 60, of Langley and passenger Patrick Lobsinger, 70, of Surrey, were killed after their blue Cessna plunged into the Nicomen Island Slough near the 38800 block of the Lougheed Highway in Deroche.
Rick Barkwell, FMA
Financial Advisor 604-851-4292 rick.barkwell@raymondjames.ca
The other aircraft containing 57-year-old pilot Paul Knapp of Pitt Meadows landed safely in a nearby field. Mission RCMP Sgt. Miriam
Dickson said Lobsinger, who was underwater for some time, perished on scene. Hubble was airlifted to Royal Columbian Hospital, but later
succumbed to his injuries. Dickson was unable to confirm how long Hubble had been flying for, but said he did have quite a bit of experience as a pilot. Canada Transportation Safety Board investigators were on scene Thursday morning, and the submerged plane was expected to be extracted from the slough by midday. A four-man crew from Firkus Aircraft was brought in to hook the fallen plane to a helicopter so the wreckage could be salvaged and examined in further detail. see CRASH, page A35
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