Guilty verdict in first Stanley Cup riot trial
Posted April 4, 2013 2:49 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – The first person to go on trial in the Stanley Cup riot in Vancouver has been found guilty on three charges.
Spencer Kirkwood had pleaded not guilty to participating in a riot, mischief and breaking a court order, saying he was too drunk to remember smashing a window with a street barricade.
He was caught on video though, and once he saw that footage two days later, he called 911 and confessed.
But Provincial Court Judge Conni Bagnall says Kirkwood’s intentions were clear and he wasn’t too drunk to understand he was doing something wrong.
A teary eyed Kirkwood walked out of court unable to say much except “sorry.”
His lawyer Jonathan Waddington says the ruling is disappointing. “In my opinion, this is an extremely remorseful individual, he was very upset with himself for what he saw himself do and he was probably one of the most sympathetic people I’ve seen with respect to the riot.”
He wouldn’t say whether Kirkwood is going to appeal but did say it’s still a live issue.
“It’s not dead at all because she made the decision specifically that in this particular case, his condition did not give rise to defence because he wasn’t drunk enough…it’s facts only,” explains Bagnall.
Kirkwood will be sentenced later and Waddington says he’ll be asking for no jail time.
More than 100 people have already pleaded guilty without trial and been sentenced for their part in the riot after the Vancouver Canucks lost Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final to the Boston Bruins in June of 2011.
