NS Crown is filing an incidental appeal against Sandeson’s murder conviction

HALIFAX, NS — It appears that neither side is pleased with the outcome of William Michael Sandeson’s recent retrial in connection with the August 2015 shooting death of a Dalhousie University fellow student during a drug deal.

Shortly after Sandeson appealed his conviction for first-degree murder last month, the Crown announced that it is an incidental appeal against his acquittal on the original charge of first-degree murder.

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

Samson’s remains have never been found.

Sandeson, 30, was on trial in the Nova Scotia Supreme Court in Dartmouth this winter. After deliberating about 22 hours over three days, the jury found him not guilty of first-degree murder, but guilty of the lesser offense of first-degree murder.

The February 18 conviction automatically carried a life sentence. At a hearing on April 20, Judge James Chipman ruled that the former medical student must serve 15 years of his sentence before he can apply for parole.

Another jury found Sandeson guilty of first-degree murder in 2017, but that conviction was overturned in 2020 by the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal and a new trial was ordered.

In a document filed with the Court of Appeals on May 10, the prosecution alleges that the judge erred in the retrial by instructing jurors that they could not consider Sandeson’s involvement in the drug trade when making the decision whether he committed a premeditated murder.

The Crown says Chipman also made a mistake when he told the jury that guilt should be the only reasonable conclusion from the circumstantial evidence against Sandeson.

“There was much incriminating direct evidence from the appellant’s testimony regarding the elements of the crime,” the prosecutor said in the cross-appeal.

“If, at the conclusion of the appeal, this honorable court were to order a new trial arising from the appellant’s appeal, the defendant shall seek an order for a new trial for first-degree murder.”

Sandeson filed his appeal on May 2, alleging that the trial judge erred in law by failing to remedy an abuse of process and failed to find that police searches of his apartment violated his charter rights .

Sandeson wants the Court of Appeals to suspend its proceedings for abuse of process or to exclude evidence seized during the searches.

Appeal decision 2020

In its 2020 decision, the Court of Appeals said a mistrial should have been granted after it was revealed during the 2017 trial that a private investigator hired by the defense 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 had not 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 seeing a man slumped in a chair at the kitchen table, with blood pouring from his head.

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

Sandeson testified at the retrial, claiming he shot Samson in self-defense.

He said he only fired his semi-automatic handgun after Samson lashed out at him twice and tried to take the gun from him during an argument over how much to pay for the drugs.

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

He said he then wrapped Samson’s body in garbage bags, placed it in a duffel bag that had contained the drugs, and carried it to his car. He said the next morning he drove to Lower Truro, where his family owns a farm, and dumped the body in the Salmon River, which flows into the Bay of Fundy.

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

The Crown maintained that the murder was planned and deliberate. Prosecutors alleged that Sandeson, who worked three part-time jobs and sold drugs in the summer of 2015, was under increasing 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 indicates that the jury rejected Sandeson’s testimony that he acted in self-defense and believed the murder was intentional but unplanned and intentional.

‘Sad and tragic’

At the parole ineligibility hearing, Chipman said the events surrounding the murder were “sad and tragic.”

“When (Sandeson) Taylor shot and killed Samson, he made a reprehensible and incomprehensible choice,” the judge said. “Instead of going to medical school, Mr. Sandeson went to jail in the summer of 2015, and he’s been there ever since.”

Sandeson was arrested three days after the murder and has now been imprisoned for about seven years and ten months. He was denied bail four times.

He is eligible to apply for parole in August 2030 when he is 37 years old.