Guilty pleas bring murder case to an end

A jailbird tip led police to a man's killers long after the RCMP's investigation of his brutal murder had gone cold, a B.C. Supreme Court judge heard Thursday.

Ruby Harry, 41, pleaded guilty to the second-degree murder of Gary Wade Cavanagh, who was found shot in the head in his 12th Street travel trailer in October 2006.

Corbin Konrad Bob, 26, pleaded guilty to Cavanagh's manslaughter. Sentencing continued Thursday afternoon.

The Crown and defence filed an agreed statement of facts with the court outlining the events that led up to the killing.
Prosecutor Don Mann told Justice Robert Powers that Cavanagh was killed in the early morning of Oct. 29, 2006. He was living in a travel trailer in the back of another woman's duplex. He was last seen alive at 1:30 a.m. His body was discovered seven hours later.

Police determined he'd been shot from outside while he stood in the doorway. A single .270-calibre rifle casing was found in the driveway.

The investigation stagnated, but resumed several months later after police received an unexpected tip, the judge was told.

In May 2007, Lawrence Green, one of Harry's former boyfriends, shot her during an unrelated domestic incident, Mann told the court. While Green was in custody serving time for the aggravated assault, he contacted RCMP and told officers what he knew of the killing.

Green told authorities and later testified at a preliminary hearing that Harry and Bob were doing cocaine and hard liquor through the evening until they were very high.

Green said Harry thought Cavanagh was coming to rob her. She decided she would “hit” him first and convinced Bob to help her.

Harry got a rifle and waited until 2 a.m., when she thought police would be busy with bar closures. They went to Cavanagh's house. Harry went to Cavanagh's door. Bob followed close behind, carrying the rifle.

Green waited nearby in a car, not knowing what was to happen, he claimed. Harry and Bob ran back about two minutes later. They all drove off.

Bob disposed of the rifle on a hillside near Heffley Creek. Harry wanted to go to Alberta. Both Bob and Harry burned their clothing in a barrel and threw extra bullets in a creek.

In April 2008, RCMP staged a “Mr. Big” undercover investigation targeting Harry. Police used a female officer to pose as a member of a criminal gang, and befriend the woman.

Over the course of 56 staged scenarios during which undercover officers posed as gangsters and committed apparent crimes, Harry revealed she and Bob “blew (Cavanagh's) head right off.”

While she gave at times conflicting information, police eventually learned from Harry it was Bob who carried the rifle and pulled the trigger, after Harry planned the event and enticed Cavanagh to the doorway.

Harry was arrested and charged with first-degree murder in September 2008. Bob was charged a short while later, after he was released from jail on an unrelated robbery charge.

After his arrest, Bob told police he had little memory of the incidents, but was prepared to accept responsibility for what he did.

Mann told the court the Crown accepted Harry's lesser plea because her degree of intoxication at the time casts doubt on her ability to plan such a crime, even though the evidence suggests there was planning.

Bob's extreme intoxication at the time calls into question whether he actually intended to kill Cavanagh, the court heard, leading to his manslaughter plea.

Mann said the killing had impact on the dead man's family.

Cavanagh was a talented artist, the prosecutor said, although he had issues with drugs and problems with the law. He was making efforts to be more involved in raising his two teenage daughters.

“He was killed in his home, that's an aggravating factor,” Mann said, noting it was a particularly brutal killing.

The court ordered both Harry and Bob to submit DNA samples to Canada's registry of serious offenders. Both were also banned for life from having firearms.

Comments