Phillip James Tallio was just 17 years old when he was arrested for the sexual assault and murder of a 22-month old toddler in Bella Coola on April 23, 1983. In January of 1984, Tallio was sentenced to life in prison for the crime.
Very little was publicized by major newspapers about the crime at the time, but according to court documents Tallio pled not guilty. However, just nine days into the trail his lawyer entered a guilty plea of second-degree mruder on his behalf.
Now, the prisoner at the medium-security Mountain Institution in Agassiz is appealing his conviction with help from the Innocence Project at the University of B.C., an appeal eight years in the making. Documents say he did not knowingly instruct his lawyer to plead guilty to the crime.
Tallio has spent more than two-thirds of his life in prison for a crime he says he didn’t commit; and he has maintained his innocence during his entire 34-year incarceration.
If Tallio were to be acquitted, the case would make Canadian legal history. Tallio has served more time than David Milgaard and Donald Marshall combined before their exonerations made national headlines. So far he has spent seven years longer behind bars than Ivan Henry, who served 27 years in prison before his 2010 acquittal, and three more years than Romeo Phillion, believed to be the longest-serving prisoner to have a murder conviction thrown out in Canada.
Tallio had a troubled past and was described as having an intellectual level “far below his years,” according to court documents. He had been a ward of the state since 1979, been orphaned and lived in several foster homes and suffered child abuse.
The 17-year-old also had “a functioning level of a child 10 to 12 years of age,” according to evidence before the court at the 1983 voir dire.
The RCMP came to retrieve Tallio on the morning of the murder at 9 a.m. Apparently Tallio was “informed of his right to instruct and retain counsel,” according to a voir dire ruling at B.C. Supreme Court, but he did not exercise that right that day.
According to a forensic psychologist who tested Tallio, the teenager would have had severe difficulties understanding long and complex sentences due to his intellectual disabilities, and his emotional and deprivation and extreme trauma would have rendered him submissive to authority.
He was interrogated at the local station in Bella Coola, where he was held in isolation and given a physical examination where a doctor took DNA evidence from him.
Further interrogation failed to produce an admission of guilt, and according to the voir dire ruling, Tallio maintained that “he had no involvement in the victim’s death, but had been simply the first to discover her. Repeatedly, the constable suggested that Tallio was not being truthful and asked if he would like to tell him more.” This led the local constable to state that the teenager “was not going to confess.”
A corporal from Prince Rupert then took over the interrogation and set up a Dictaphone and microphone in the room, but that portion of the session was not recorded due to a “malfunction” with the tape recorder.
However, after about 35 minutes, the corporal had written out a statement and Tallio had signed it. This and an earlier statement were ruled inadmissible in trial, as the judge stated that he had a reasonable doubt as to the voluntariness of Tallio’s statements.
Tallio’s lawyers, Tom Arbogast and Rachel Barsky of UBC’s Innocence Project, said they plan to introduce fresh evidence including expert testimony and “exclusionary” DNA evidence.
Arbogast said the new evidence is intended to raise questions about the investigation and, ultimately, to prove Tallio’s innocence.
They have applied to withdraw his guilty plea because it “was uninformed, equivocal and not voluntary, and he did not knowingly instruct his counsel to plead guilty to second degree murder,” according to an amended notice of appeal filed with the court in March.
Details of Tallio’s trial by jury are included in sealed documents that the B.C. Prosecution Service will not release as it is an “active file.”
In disturbing twist to the story, the fact that Tallio’s staunch declaration of his innocence for over three decades means he has never been, and probably never will be, granted parole.
He maintained his innocence during his parole hearings in 1993 and 1996, and when he got the message that he needed to admit guilt to gain parole he waived his right to full parole reviews up to 2005. He has also refused to participate in programs related to sex offending.
Barsky has spent a lot of time getting to know Tallio, who is at Mountain Institution, a medium-security facility in Agassiz. He has trouble understanding and responding to verbal questions, she said, so they mostly communicate in writing. Tallio keeps to himself in prison. He used to watch a lot of movies, she said, but his television broke and he doesn’t have the money for a new one.
“People do plead guilty. We know (some) plead guilty when they are factually innocent.” Barsky said. “If he had just said ‘I’m guilty,’ there’s a chance he could have obtained parole.”
While Barsky notes that it’s rare to find wrongful convictions comparable to David Milgard, they do happen. Tallio’s case has been relatively unknown in legal circles until now, but it was mentioned in a 2006 B.C. Supreme Court judgment where it was among four noted where “police unfairly interfered with the legitimate efforts of detained persons to access counsel as is their right under the Charter.”
Barsky said she could not discuss details of Tallio’s appeal while it’s before the courts but should Tallio walk free at 51 years old, he would be entering a drastically changed world.
“He’s spent his entire lifetime in prison and for him, when hopefully he is released, he is going to be entering an entirely new world,” said Barsky.
Tallio’s lawyers will go to court next month in a bid to get permission for the appeal to proceed.
With files from Postmedia and CBC News
