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OCTOBER 15, 2015 | Volume 28 No. 124
Accused killer’s fate in hands of jury CAM FORTEMS
STAFF REPORTER
cam@kamloopsthisweek.com
Calling the killing of 16-year-old CJ Fowler a “tragedy of profound proportions,” a defence lawyer told a jury Tuesday in B.C. Supreme Court in Kamloops that there is no direct link between a drug-addled Damien Taylor and her death. But, in its closing submission, the Crown recounted to jurors a catalogue of lies told by Taylor, urging the 11 people to find him guilty of seconddegree murder. Justice Dev Dley instructed the jury Tuesday and yesterday, after which it began its deliberations.
Damien Taylor is charged with second-degree murder in connection to the Dec. 5, 2012, death of his 16-year-old girlfriend, CJ Fowler.
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News on the verdict at kamloopsthisweek.com
Fowler’s body was found in the early afternoon of Dec. 5, 2012, by dog walkers. Her face was crushed and a concrete block rested on her chest. Taylor, now 24 and her boyfriend at the time, was charged a year later. “Crystal meth has laid waste to two families,” defence lawyer Don Campbell said in his closing submission, urging jurors to focus on what he said is a lack of a motive for Taylor to kill his girlfriend, who was pregnant with his child — what he called “a huge, unassailable why?” Campbell said Taylor and Fowler were interdependent, always choosing to be together — even when that closeness led to bickering. Other than what appeared to be a disagreement at Royal Inland Hospital in the hours before her death, Campbell said there was no history of evidence of conflict. “Without her, he has nothing. Without her, he is nothing,” Campbell said. The defence lawyer urged jurors to find reasonable doubt in a case built upon circumstantial evidence and lacking in motive. Prosecutor Alexandra Janse noted a series of lies told by Taylor, beginning at the Prince George RCMP office on the evening of Dec. 5, when he told police he lost Fowler at the hospital, something video obtained later showed wasn’t true. Taylor also burst into tears when told CJ was dead. See MANSLAUGHTER, A6
ANDREA KLASSEN/KTW
St. Ann’s Academy kindergarten student Katheryn Kopper (left) sings O Canada with her classmates and Grade 6 students during a mass recording of schoolchildren in Kamloops on Tuesday.
CALL IT CANADA’S CHOIR
ANDREA KLASSEN
STAFF REPORTER
andrea@kamloopsthisweek.com
O
n a small TV screen, the countdown began and Rob Hanson raised his arms in preparation for the first notes of a familiar tune. As the first few bars of O Canada spilled out of the speakers, a group of kindergarten and Grade 6 students at St. Ann’s Academy became the latest schoolchildren to add their voices to the country’s largest choir —
After a recording trip to the at last count, more than 25,000 territories later this month, the members strong, and growing. various recordings will be mixed Hanson, executive director of the non-profit Hometown Music, into English, French and bilingual versions has been amassthe national ing recordings [video online] of anthem — each of the national See footage at featuring the anthem since kamloopsthisweek.com largest number February, visitof singers ever ing schools in all recorded, Hanson said. 10 provinces. “We’re a non-profit that On Tuesday, students at St. promotes music education and Ann’s and Bert Edwards science our whole thing is to get kids and technology school became involved in music projects,” the latest singers to step up Hanson said. to Hometown Music’s microphones. See RECORDINGS, A6
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