Convicted killer William Sandeson seeks bail in N.S. Court of Appeal

HALIFAX, N.S. — William Michael Sandeson wants a Nova Scotia Court of Appeal judge to release him from prison on restrictive bail conditions pending an appeal of his conviction for second-degree murder in the shooting of a fellow Dalhousie University student during a drug deal in August 2015.

During a hearing Thursday in Halifax, the 31-year-old former medical student asked the judge to grant him bail and place him on house arrest at his parents’ farm in Lower Truro.

Sandeson, who represented himself at the hearing, proposed that the bail order be secured by a $500,000 pledge by his parents and $1,000 promises by his three brothers.

The release plan would require at least one of Sandeson’s five sureties to always be with him, and he would have to wear an electronic ankle bracelet so his whereabouts could be monitored.

He would only be allowed to leave the family home to do chores on the farm, attend Sunday services at Old Barns United Church, go to court and for medical emergencies and appointments.

“I love my family dearly and will not do anything to betray the trust they have in me or cause them financial ruin,” Sandeson wrote in an affidavit filed with the court this June. “I represent the fourth generation to live and work on our farm, and the property means more to me than whatever its appraisal value might be.

“My father built our home, and it is the only one that I and my brothers have ever known. I will not let my family down.”

This is the fifth time Sandeson has applied for bail since his arrest Aug. 18, 2015. He was denied bail in Nova Scotia Supreme Court three times – in October 2015, January 2021 and October 2021 – and in the Appeal Court in November 2022.

Crown attorney Mark Scott opposed Sandeson’s release Thursday, saying “there is substantial public interest in his detention.”

Scott said the record shows Sandeson has a history of lies and deceit, “including to those people that he today claims to have such trust and respect for.”

The prosecutor pointed out that Sandeson concealed evidence on his parents’ farm after the killing and hid the marijuana he stole from victim Taylor Samson in the basement of his brother Adam’s Halifax apartment building.

Justice David Farrar reserved his decision and said he will issue a written ruling.

Samson, a 22-year-old physics student, disappeared after going to Sandeson’s apartment on Henry Street in Halifax on the night of Aug. 15, 2015, to sell him 20 pounds, or nine kilograms, of marijuana for $40,000.

Samson’s remains have never been recovered.

Sandeson stood trial in Supreme Court in Dartmouth this past winter. After deliberating over three days, the jury found him not guilty of first-degree murder but guilty of the lesser offence of second-degree murder.

The Feb. 18 conviction carried an automatic sentence of life in prison. At a hearing in April, Justice James Chipman decided Sandeson must serve 15 years of his sentence before he can apply for parole.

It was Sandeson’s second trial. A jury found him guilty of first-degree murder in 2017, but that conviction was overturned by the Appeal Court in 2020 and a new trial ordered. 

Grounds of appeal

Sandeson filed his latest notice of appeal in May, alleging the trial judge erred by failing to remedy an abuse of process and failing to find police searches of his apartment breached his charter rights. He wants the Appeal Court to stay his proceedings because of an abuse of process or exclude the evidence seized during the searches and order a new trial.

In the affidavit Sandeson filed for the bail application, he said he also plans to argue that the jury should have received an instruction about the partial defence of provocation, and that the jury was improperly instructed regarding after-the-fact conduct. 

The provincial Public Prosecution Service filed a cross-appeal in May, claiming Chipman erred in instructing jurors that they could not consider Sandeson’s involvement in the drug trade in deciding whether he committed a first-degree murder.

If the court orders a new trial, the Crown will ask that it be on the original charge of first-degree murder.

The appeal will be heard by an Appeal Court panel June 13, 2024. Sandeson hopes to find out by January whether Nova Scotia Legal Aid will help with his appeal.

2020 appeal decision

In its 2020 decision, the Appeal Court said a mistrial should have been declared after it was revealed during the 2017 trial that a private investigator hired by the defence had tipped off police about evidence.

Two men who were in the apartment across the hall from Sandeson’s unit on the night of the shooting initially told police they hadn’t seen or heard anything.

But in the fall of 2016, Justin Blades and Pookiel McCabe revealed to private investigator Bruce Webb that they looked into the apartment after hearing a single gunshot and saw a man slumped over in a chair at the kitchen table, with blood coming from his head.

Webb, a retired RCMP officer, gave the information to police and urged them to interview the pair again.

Sandeson testified at the retrial and claimed he shot Samson in self-defence.

He said he only fired his nine-millimetre, semi-automatic handgun after Samson lunged at him and tried to get the weapon away from him during an argument over how much he was going to pay for the drugs.

Sandeson said he dragged Samson’s body to the bathroom and placed it in the tub while he cleaned up the blood in the apartment.

He said he wrapped Samson’s body in garbage bags, put it in a duffel bag that had contained the drugs and carried it to his car. He said he drove to Lower Truro and dumped the body in the Salmon River, which empties into the Bay of Fundy.

Sandeson insisted he did not dismember Samson’s six-foot-four, 220-pound body to fit it in the duffel bag.

The Crown alleged Sandeson, who was working three part-time jobs and selling drugs in the summer of 2015, was under mounting financial pressure. They said he killed Samson for the drugs so he could pay off a $78,000 debt on a line of credit.

The verdict indicated the jury rejected Sandeson’s testimony that he acted in self-defence and believed the killing was intentional but not planned and deliberate.