Riley gets bail on latest charges after murder acquittal in N.S. Supreme Court
HALIFAX, N.S. — Randy Desmond Riley, who was acquitted of second-degree murder last week by a Nova Scotia Supreme Court jury, has been granted bail on his latest charges.
The 32-year-old Lake Loon man was arrested Oct. 1 and charged with three counts of breaching his release conditions on the murder charge and single counts of resisting or obstructing police, impaired driving and refusing to provide a breath sample.
Riley remained in custody for the rest of his murder trial, which concluded last Thursday in Dartmouth. The jury found Riley not guilty of both second-degree murder and illegal possession of a firearm, a sawed-off shotgun.
It was Riley’s second trial in connection with the Oct. 23, 2010, shooting of a pizza delivery driver in north-end Dartmouth.
Donald Chad Smith, 27, was shot in the chest after delivering a pizza to an address on Joseph Young Street. Riley and another man were arrested in 2013 and charged with first-degree murder.
Riley was found guilty of second-degree murder and illegal possession of a firearm by a different jury in April 2018, but the convictions were overturned in November 2020 by the Supreme Court of Canada, which ordered a new trial.
The Crown alleged at the 2018 trial that Riley killed Smith in revenge for an earlier assault, and that Nathan Tremaine Johnson phoned the pizza shop to lure Smith to the location where he was killed.
Johnson, of Cherry Brook, stood trial in 2015 and was found guilty of first-degree murder. He was subpoenaed by the Crown to testify at Riley’s 2018 trial, where he claimed he was the only person responsible for Smith’s killing and that he shot him over a drug debt.
Two Crown witnesses admitted at the recent trial that they had lied in some of their testimony at the first trial.
The jury at this trial deliberated for just over four hours before reaching a verdict Thursday.
Riley appeared in Halifax provincial court the next day and was released on the other charges on $250 bail. Those matters will return to court Nov. 3.
