Derek Puffer of Calgary has pleaded not guilty in the killing of his mother and stepfather in a trial that began Oct. 20 and is anticipated to last all week.
Puffer has been charged with two counts of second-degree murder in the deaths of Donna and Billy Powers.
Billy was a well-known sports broadcaster who retired in 2009, following 50 years in the industry.
He continued to write a weekly column in the Cochrane Eagle up until his untimely death.
The couple was found in their Braeside home in July 2013, dead as a result of multiple stab wounds; the court heard that Billy was stabbed 25 times and his wife, Donna, 16 times.
Puffer was found the evening the incident took place at a nearby bus stop, naked and with blood on his hands.
He allegedly told police that he suffers from schizophrenia and has been off medication for 20 years, adding that his parents ‘had put a computer chip in his brain and that he was hearing voices asking him about a knife’.
Puffer’s lawyer, Alain Hepner, told Justice Kristine Eidsvik that the issue is not over whether or not his client committed the crime, rather if he could be held criminally responsible due to mental illness.
The court viewed a video of an interview between police and Puffer, following his arrest. In the video, he told detectives that he ‘blacked out a lot and did irrational things’ and that “it hasn’t registered that I killed them”.
Calgary defence counsel, Alain Hepner, has appealed a 32-month sentence given to his client, Ryan Jordan Gibson, for killing 17-year-old Brandon Thomas Dec. 6, 2012 as a result of drunk driving.
Provincial court judge Karim Jivraj rejected a joint submission for a two-year sentence submitted by Hepner and Crown prosecutor Ron Simenik.
Jivraj said the crime warranted a harsher punishment than what was being proposed.
Hepner told a three-member Alberta Court of Appeal panel Oct. 21 that Jivraj’s decision should be overturned and that the 24-month sentence was within the normal range of punishment for such a crime.
The appeal decision was reserved.
A motorcyclist, a woman in her 40s, is dead following an incident that took place on Hwy 1A near Ghost Dam, outside of nearby Morley.
The motorcyclist collided with a pickup truck around 1 p.m. Oct. 18. She had been travelling westbound with a group of motorcyclists.
The woman was the only party who sustained injuries. She was pronounced dead on scene by EMS.
Cochrane Fish and Wildlife are seeking assistance from the public regarding the recent discovery of three deer that were shot with their carcasses abandoned in the rural Cochrane area.
The carcass of a mule deer was discovered Sept. 30 along Hwy 40, some 20 km north of Hwy 1A.
A white-tailed buck was found shot and left northwest of Cochrane on private land and later that day, a white-tailed deer was also found shot and left south of Cochrane on Hwy 68.
All three animals appear to have been shot from roadways — which is illegal under the Wildlife Act, as is wasting or abandoning edible meat from a big game animal.
Maximum penalties for offences under the Wildlife Act carry a maximum penalty of up to a $50,000 fine and/or one year in jail.
Anyone with information is encouraged to contact Fish and Wildlife or to call the 24-hour Report A Poacher line (anonymously) at 1-800-642-3800.
